Nothing looks more lumpy and anachronistic than that fat yellow directory squatting on a shelf. It requires too much effort to wade through its many business categories. I’m annoyed when the new directories show up on my doorstep and I have to lug the old one to the trash.Yet I think it would be a mistake for your business to suspend advertising there. It’s true, of course, that the Internet has changed so much about how we conduct commerce, particularly advertising. It’s opened up ways to reach customers around the world with ease. I can’t think of a serious business that isn’t served in some way by having a clean and engaging Web site. But as you think of yourself trolling for new customers, consider how those yellow books narrow the universe down to a single geographic area.
Whether or not the directories are still relevant “is a very good question,” says Maria Mitchell, assistant vice president of advertising for Yellow Book USA in Uniondale, N.Y., one of the biggest directory publishers. At a recent industry conference, she said, “Every presenter touched on the subject. There are people who have forecasted the demise of the yellow book for some time and have been proven wrong time and again.”
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