# Why/how did yellow pages get to cost to much? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594 "2006-06-13T17:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/21 "2006-06-16T01:31:11Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Yes, but I don’t think TV and Radio are a valid comparison- after all, TV has pictures, whereas radio is just sound, and they’re in two different markets at the end of the day. I stand by my prediction that the paper Yellow Pages will be gone by 2025. Using Google or Sensis or whatever is so much easier than trying to look something up in a phone book- Yellow Pages or otherwise. [/QUOTE] And books are text, and the internet is electronic images. What’s your point? Anyway, you didn’t get my point: _To you_, using Google or Sensis or whatever is “so much easier.” To others, it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/22 "2006-06-16T06:21:04Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] And books are text, and the internet is electronic images. What’s your point? [/quote] That IS my point. Radio and TV are different ways of presenting much the same thing- as are Books and the Internet. The difference is that books are printed on paper, and web pages are displayed on a screen. It costs money to print books- it costs almost nothing to have those same books in an electronic form on the internet. > [@](#): > > Anyway, you didn’t get my point: _To you_, using Google or Sensis or whatever is “so much easier.” To others, it’s not. That’s the case in 2006, and I’ve never said otherwise. But by 2025, I think the majority of people will be using Google/Sensis/Whatever instead of actually going to a books (which they’ll have to pay for) to get the same information. That’s not to say the Yellow Pages won’t simply become “Online Only”- but I stand by my earlier comments that a physical, bound paper, book copy of the Yellow Pages will be a thing of the past by 2025. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/23 "2006-06-16T09:40:50Z")
> [@](#): > > That IS my point. Radio and TV are different ways of presenting much the same thing- as are Books and the Internet. The difference is that books are printed on paper, and web pages are displayed on a screen. It costs money to print books- it costs almost nothing to have those same books in an electronic form on the internet. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You’ve never run an IT department with an active website, have you? 😃 You’ve never borne the cost of an IT infrastructure that’s capable of maintaining terabytes of data, millions of page hits, hundreds of employee logins, etc etc etc, all having to maintain dependibility as close to 100% as possible, have you? 😃 You’ve never had to meet a weekly payroll, have you? 😃 :snort: “… costs almost nothing…” :snort: Yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/24 "2006-06-16T10:40:21Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] That’s not to say the Yellow Pages won’t simply become “Online Only”- but I stand by my earlier comments that a physical, bound paper, book copy of the Yellow Pages will be a thing of the past by 2025. [/QUOTE] How do you find a computer repair service? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/25 "2006-06-16T15:15:50Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] How do you find a computer repair service? [/QUOTE] Generally I take it to my local PC shop (recommended by a friend or known to me personally), or I call a tech-savvy friend who knows more about PCs than I do. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Malienation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Malienation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malienation)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/26 "2006-06-17T03:55:00Z")
When the new phone books come out (find out when that is), people usually get rid of their old ones. Many dumps have recycle bins (some even have special bins just for phone books) for paper. They’ll be filled with phone books. Just go and take one. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/27 "2006-06-17T04:16:40Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] How do you find a computer repair service? [/QUOTE] My debate exactly with my phone company ad rep yesterday morning. Program A: $687/month without listing on internet directory via same company Program B: $524/month + $29/month for the internet listing. I don’t even want the listing, I have had zero calls from it in one year. but its $130/month cheaper if I take it. 😕 :rolleyes: My website has generated more paying customers, the graphics on my truck have paid for themselves 3x over in 6 months and cost less than 1 year of that damn POS internet directory listing. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/28 "2006-06-17T04:18:03Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Generally I take it to my local PC shop (recommended by a friend or known to me personally), or I call a tech-savvy friend who knows more about PCs than I do. 😛 [/QUOTE] Amazingly enough only about 10-15% of my business is repeats or referrals. So the book does have immense potential for attracting new customers. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/29 "2006-06-17T05:54:06Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix] Amazingly enough only about 10-15% of my business is repeats or referrals. So the book does have immense potential for attracting new customers. [/QUOTE] That’s very interesting… I don’t have any hard statistics in front of me, but most of the PC shops I know trade exclusively on word of mouth, ads in the paper/flyers in the letterbox/TV and Radio ads, and the internet. Certainly the two computer shops guys I know the best don’t bother with the Yellow Pages, because “anyone who needs us knows where we are”. Admittedly I’m not in a city the size of Boston or anything like that, but I think the usefulness of the Yellow Pages may be subject to all kinds of demographic interpretation, with “younger” people perhaps being less inclined to “Let Their Fingers Do The Walking” via the Yellow Pages… ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/30 "2006-06-17T06:29:34Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] That’s very interesting… I don’t have any hard statistics in front of me, but most of the PC shops I know trade exclusively on word of mouth, ads in the paper/flyers in the letterbox/TV and Radio ads, and the internet. Certainly the two computer shops guys I know the best don’t bother with the Yellow Pages, because “anyone who needs us knows where we are”. Admittedly I’m not in a city the size of Boston or anything like that, but I think the usefulness of the Yellow Pages may be subject to all kinds of demographic interpretation, with “younger” people perhaps being less inclined to “Let Their Fingers Do The Walking” via the Yellow Pages… [/QUOTE] Well I am a relatively new business, as my customer exposures increase im sure that more and more referrals and word of mouth customers will eventually. As far as things like radio and TV ads a 30 sec radio commercial can easily cost $45 in my market. For the price of 10 30 second spots per month I can have a phone book ad. Which would you think is a better deal for your advertising dollar. Maybe some of it is just my POV but I prefer more durable advertising medium. If I had $1000 for ads and could buy 25 radio spots or a billboard for a month on a semi busy street, billboard in a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/31 "2006-06-17T07:40:59Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix] As far as things like radio and TV ads a 30 sec radio commercial can easily cost $45 in my market. For the price of 10 30 second spots per month I can have a phone book ad. Which would you think is a better deal for your advertising dollar. [/QUOTE] The Radio commercial, definitely. Much higher chance of someone actually hearing it, as opposed to being in a book people may or may not be looking in. Oh, wait, that was one of those “Rhetorical Question” things, wasn’t it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/32 "2006-06-17T09:53:27Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] The Radio commercial, definitely. Much higher chance of someone actually hearing it, as opposed to being in a book people may or may not be looking in. Oh, wait, that was one of those “Rhetorical Question” things, wasn’t it? 😃 [/QUOTE] Nope Remember people are not always listening to the radio or watching TV either. They may call a business they heard about on TV but where do they go for the number… In my business many competitors come and go quickly or are only doing it part time and do not consistently answer their phones…even some of the ones who spend alot of money on radio/tv advertising. Or since they are small 1-2 man operatons like me they get swamped and cant work promptly. Thus who you gonna call next. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/33 "2006-06-17T11:53:05Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix] Remember people are not always listening to the radio or watching TV either. They may call a business they heard about on TV but where do they go for the number… [/QUOTE] The White Pages, where normal people’s phone numbers can be found as well! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/34 "2006-06-17T20:02:51Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] The White Pages, where normal people’s phone numbers can be found as well! 😃 [/QUOTE] I am listed there as well. Some books intentionally do no list businesses in the white pages unless they pay extra for those white pages listings. TV and radio ads are great but require alot more money to air in addition to production costs. Like many things advertising has a diminishing returns. At a certain point no matter how much money I sink into phone book ads it will not generate any more business. At that point you need to look into radio and TV advertising to expose your name to a greater segment of the public. In the case of my father and many of his peers internet advertsing is almost seen as odd. Many general contractors, even large ones, don’t even have a website. If they do its just a few pix to show off some of their work and give contact info. Just for comparisons sake the google ads I set up for a 10 mile radius around me have had 3,000 exposures in the last week for one clickthrough. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/35 "2006-06-18T02:22:24Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] The Radio commercial, definitely. Much higher chance of someone actually hearing it, as opposed to being in a book people may or may not be looking in. [/QUOTE] Now you are just pulling unsupportable opinions out of thin air. I have ads in two competing phone books, and they produce the bulk of my business. People do look in the yellow pages when they have a specific need. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t pay thousands of dollars a year to have an ad in them, and the books wouldn’t bother trying to sell worthless space. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/36 "2006-06-18T03:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] The Radio commercial, definitely. Much higher chance of someone actually hearing it, as opposed to being in a book people may or may not be looking in. Oh, wait, that was one of those “Rhetorical Question” things, wasn’t it? 😃 [/QUOTE] However, the people looking at your ad in the book are people who are _ready to buy_. Therefore while the radio ad might have more “ears”, the read phone book ad will generate far more revenue-per-person than the listened-to radio ad. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2006, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/37 "2006-06-18T19:33:25Z")
In case y’all are wondering, er, Martini ( 😉 ), looking at some latest 10-k’s (or their British equivalent), following are basic profitability ratios of selected companies (NI (earnings less TIDA)/Gross Revenues): RR Donnelly: 4.15% (Printing) Exxon-Mobil: 10.3% (Oil) Yell Group LLC: 13.1% (Phone Books) Wal-Mart: 3.6% (Retail) Microsoft: 30.7% (Software) Citigroup: 25.4% (Financial Services) CBS: 6.3% (TV Network) Verizon: 9.8% (Their directory segment had a gross margin of 30.2%) SBC, er, ATT: 9.1% (RBOC) (If you look deeper at the segment breakdowns, here they are as follows: Wireline: 11.8% Cingular Wireless: 5.3% Directory: 52.16%) To be quite honest, I’m still not sure where you’re coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/38 "2006-06-20T15:12:31Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] When and why did they start charging money for yellow pages? [/QUOTE] Always have, although I can only personally verify since 1970. Sure you can get plenty of free copies at COC or library but $50 seems about right for a company to spend making sure you get your own copy. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/39 "2006-06-20T17:51:59Z")
[QUOTE=Will Repair] Always have, although I can only personally verify since 1970. Sure you can get plenty of free copies at COC or library but $50 seems about right for a company to spend making sure you get your own copy. [/QUOTE] Unless this is hidden somewhere in my phone bill, I have never paid for yellow pages. They come bound with the white pages. If I had to pay, I would decline. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2006, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594/40 "2006-06-20T23:16:34Z")
[QUOTE=Khadaji] Unless this is hidden somewhere in my phone bill, I have never paid for yellow pages. [/QUOTE] Yes you have. In fact you’ve paid for your books and helped pay for all the free ones other people get. Let me put my previous post another way. The phone company takes part of its profit to distribute books to paying customers and to COCs and libraries. It does not normally mail books on demand. But it will (and always has) mail one on demand for what it considers a offsetting fee. The fee is for doing what it normally does not do, specific mailing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-how-did-yellow-pages-get-to-cost-to-much/360594.md?page=3)