It seems like many are missing your point. What RIGHT do the companies have to litter yards and put products on doorsteps that people feel they do not need. Even AT&T said they do not need white pages… if that is the case with 1-800-GOOG-411 why do we have to have Yellow Pages? Online and Free phones services are avail. Should Yellow Pages companies offer products on a subscriptions basis?? I believe so and stated how this would benefit them in becoming an authority and offer a better product. They just need to be more innovative with solutions in my opinion. But I am sure time will help lead them to the troff. I actually was lined up to meet with the Executive V.P. of the region to discuss ideas, but assumed that the meeting would jeopardize my career…. it was stated that they don’t need advice from “media consultants”. Gotta love a culture that doesn’t appreciate the right questions being asked.

Cheers,

Mike

Just imagine, a typical block has 6 homes….. x2 sides of the street is atleast 10 homes that will get a book. If just 2 or 3 kept it the YP companies paid for the distribution. The margins on the product are as much as dealing drugs! lol. Why? Maybe because they had a monopoly and keep raising rates! The independents and economic recession combined with local search boom is killing the balance sheets. That is why I still don’t think 3 billion is low enough. I think YP in urban markets is like TubeTV’s! Done on the S-curve. Yet I think the country folks will keep using it. It is great. I like Hometown Yellow Pages.

Mike

My tune has not changed towards the print yellow pages. I personally do not use the product and never have. I am 28 years old and grew up with a PC and an Atari. I don’t understand the fascination with print ads when the internet is much more dynamic. But I know the product works. My mother worked for GTE Yellow Pages back in 1997 (she recently passed last year in an accident). I know her clients and I know my clients. The product does work. I just don’t think it works as well, and I think the company could make big improvements with ad tracking, distribution, online ad buying, transparent pricing, and a media planning focus vs sales focus. Unfortunately the company needs strong margins to cover overhead. Main reason I wanted to leave the company is that I didn’t agree with many things and was not offered the ability to ask the right questions. The Pespsi, PPC, and Building Supply fellas make all the decisions.

I am sure I will have fun doing what I enjoy! Good news is I won’t need but 10-20 clients, and the churn will be significantly less! I think the fascination with paid search will soon end when folks start realizing that Maps/SEO is where it is at! We all love utilizing our expertise and what can happen when you invest in your greatest asset: YOUR BRAIN!

Cheers again Ed!
Mike Stewart

Mike Stewart
http://www.DallasSEOguru.com

To address just one of your claims, are you suggesting that the YP industry employs illegal aliens as sales reps? While not impossible, that seems like an atypical job for an undocumented worker.

I wonder what would happen if the yellow page industry:

-Stopped allowing sales reps to give credit to illegal aliens for yellow page ads
-Stopped assuming that folks actually still use the white pages or the need for such outweighed the environmental impact
-Stopped sending quality leads to folks that don’t pay on the backs of paying customers
-Stopped sneaking around and sharing information with competitors
-Ceased the idea that everyone “deserves” a yellow pages. I would focus on a direct mail style distribution with a very easy opt out system that actually works.
-Stopped making pricing so darn NON-Transparent and actually attempted to make it a fair marketplace.
-Realized that 9% bad debt and 6% claims and (my opinion) 15% sales fraud is not the way to go forward
-Realized that having 9 billion in debt and reducing it to 3 billion does not mean that you are no longer bankrupt.

I can keep going… but that is all for now!