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by Stephen Byrne

on Nov 25

The death of print: the final days of the phone book

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When did you last use the print edition of a phone directory?

In Australia the first directory was on a single sheet and listed just 44 numbers, now more than 100 years later it’s still in print but looks likely to go the way of the rotary dial phone. Here’s a couple of recent and related events that suggest directory publisher Sensis needs to prepare for the inevitable:

  • Print company PMP’s contract with Sensis for production of Australian White Pages and Yellow Page directories expires on 30 June 2009
  • A new GPY&R Yellow campaign for Yellow Pages announces the release of a handy sized print version for use in the car
  • Google and Telstra subsidiary Sensis announce they have signed a deal to integrate the data from Yellow Pages business listings into Google
    Maps Australia
  • Total worldwide smart phone shipments hit new peak of 39.9 million in Q3 2008 while in Europe almost 40% are GPS enabled. In Australia, 3m will ship constituting 30% of all mobile phone sales
  • Google announce a new iPhone application that runs a voice translation service which enables users to speak and ask for the name of service or store near their location and have it sent to their phones

According to Sensis, its Yellow Pages print version does AUD$1 billion in advertising annually and the Yellow Pages Online a further $100 million.

Last year more than nine million print copies of its White Pages were distributed in Australia with Sensis claiming a 99% penetration rate into Australian households. But the events above threaten these brands’ relevance and could convey them to the dustbin of history.

The long decline in landline connections can be linked to falls in use of both print editions. In February Sensis parent Telstra announced, somewhat half heartedly, that it had arrested some of the decline in its fixed line services. In fact, the decline was just 2.1% against a 2.5% decline in the previous six months to June, the annual decline still around four or five percent.

But there maybe something more significant going on with Sensis’ so-called Yellow and White Pages Networks, with both registering significant online declines in viewership this year. Alexa data puts Yellowpages.com.au views of its online edition down a massive 10% for the last quarter and Whitepages.com.au down 3%. This contrasts with White Pages’ claim in March it was number one for business search and Yelllow Pages announcement in November that more 11 million Australians used its service every month. While competitive intelligence service Hitwise’s latest figures has White Pages with an increased market share of 10.89% for the same period but this is only 0.19% of all use across the entire online market with Google’s Australian operation dominating the market with 8.38%. White Pages is not even a top 20 site in Australia. Similarly, Hitwise has Yellow Pages increase market share by 7.25% for the period for a total share of only 0.11%. Up against Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, it is a minnow. Sensis’ deal with Google Australia seems to at least acknowledge that its market share is close to a fiction and it needs to better position its brand to take advantage of the much anticipated growth in location-based services coming from the explosion in smart phone use.

By year’s end around three million smart phones will have shipped in Australia, most with built-in GPS such as the iPhone and Nokia Navigator. Portable navigation devices like Mio and TomTom, primarily used in cars, seem already to have been sidelined as carmakers increasingly include it as standard and users opt for more personal technologies. Already Nokia is the third largest provider of mobile navigation across all platforms in Europe. In this scenario, the release of the new Sensis Yellow Pages directory for car use seems both archaic and a folly.

Sensis says 25% of all phone books don’t get recycled but end up as doorstops or propping up computers. Perhaps these users are the only demographic that’s going to find it hard to lose the phone book. Regardless, PMP might want to check its contract when it comes up next year. My feeling is Sensis is losing its way and needs a better strategy that increases relevance, brand visibility and usability for a complete multiplatform environment, otherwise it might see more of its brands (think Trading Post!) analogous to a doorstop.

You can pickup chart links directly from Alexa.com.They refer to page views and are for the past year.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/whitepages.com.au

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/yellowpages.com.au

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/sensis.com.au

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13 Comments

The Marketer
  • Wrote on 27 Nov, at 09:10AM
We can't lose the Yellow Pages...they do the best ads. "Not happy Jan"

But then again, I haven't used one for months...good article!
Editor | Kate
  • Wrote on 27 Nov, at 09:19AM
The tagline, "let your fingers do the walking"... will transcend into "let your fingers do the clicking".
PrincePlanet
  • Wrote on 28 Nov, at 11:06AM
Funny Yellow Pages where THE FIRST Yellow Pages in the world online - it was way back in March 1994 yes it's true.

Sadly the Business especially under the Telstra re-ownership in 2000, who embarked on a no change, no innovation strategy that focussed back on on the cash cow which was print at the time, all of the innovative initiatives online were parked and it was one of the biggest failures of opportunity in history, both on brand on focus and consumer engagement. Funny how management back than used to demise of the Printed Encylopedia Britanica the CD as an example of what not not to do - but did nothing.

Go you good thing "google local"

PP
Steve@Sensis
  • Wrote on 2 Dec, at 10:15AM
You would be hard pressed to find a business in Australia that is more multi-channel than Sensis and in particular, our Yellow and White Pages directory businesses.

Media consumption is fragmenting. That’s common knowledge. For Sensis, which is in the business of connecting buyers and sellers, we recognise buyers are searching for businesses in enormous numbers, across a multitude of services and channels.

So delivering advertiser value isn’t a question of ‘print vs online’. Local search businesses need to help advertisers reach out through print AND online AND voice AND mobile AND sat nav.
If you want to deliver real advertiser value, you need to take advertisers out to where the buyers are – not where you’d like them to be.

Yellow print directories are as strong as ever. At the same time, we’ve networked Yellow advertisers so that with one ad, they can potentially be found by millions more buyers across online (including search engines), voice, sat nav and mobile.

According to Roy Morgan:
• 7 million Australians use the main Yellow print directories every month;
• 4 million use the Yellow Local directories;
• 3 million new Yellow in the Car directories are being distributed across Melbourne and Sydney (Sensis distribution data). Yellow In the Car makes Yellow more accessible to buyers by giving them a directory they can take on the road with them.

And, as a result of this network approach, Yellow advertising is automatically syndicated to:
• 1.5 million monthly users of our 1234 and Call Connect voice services;
• Several hundred thousand users a month of our Yellow Mobile and Whereis Mobile sites (mobile usage has tripled in just a year);
• 1.5 million users of Whereis satellite navigation content a month (selected headings only)
• 3.7 million online users a month through www.yellowpages.com.au and www.whereis.com. Opening up our Yellow listings so they can be crawled by search engines has delivered about 1 million incremental searches a month to Yellow Online, which is currently enjoying record usage.
• And our recent partnerships with Ninemsn and Google Maps mean that, by early next year, Yellow advertisers will be accessible by the 2.7m users of those services a month.

Blogs like this one, with its dramatic headline might build drama and tension, but they don’t do a good job of reflecting reality. There is no such thing as one channel fits all in local search. Pretending there is only leads to half-baked solutions for both buyers and sellers.

In response to other claims:
• Sensis’ contract with PMP for directory printing – as you would expect with most supply contracts pertaining to core business, it will be replaced with a new contract.
• Sensis and Google’s recent agreement – for a simple outline of this win-win agreement, go to http://www.speakingsensis.com.au
• Increase in smart phone sales – Sensis is one of Australia’s pioneers when it comes to making useful, relevant contact available from your mobile. Yellow Mobile is a prime example – go to www.yellowpages.com.au on your mobile
• Relevance of White Pages – 10 million Australians access the White Pages network each month.
• Decline in landline connections – businesses and consumers still use phones and the Yellow and White Pages offer a lot more than just phone numbers ie web addresses, email addresses, street addresses. And we’ve also just added Mobile Codes.
• Online usage – Alexa is not a representative source. www.yellowpages.com.au just achieved its fourth successive month of record traffic, more than 5 million visits, more than 3 million users (Sensis web logs).
Pop Graphic Design
  • Wrote on 2 Dec, at 11:38AM
Steve you are such a company man!
I wonder if the same fate shall follow you as all the other company faithful?
I was with Pacific Access back in the mid 90's..... and let me tell you what a circus it became, complete with clowns, fools & even a barrel girl! that stood by the Yank that came to tell us all how to do it better.

With regard to the print product - it is in decline as people search for better marketing alternatives.
Another interesting point is that this year the amount of display adverts that we designed for your customers has strongly declined - the reason they came to us in the first place was that they were disgusted with the proofing files that were hand delivered by the sales team (so much for progress).

Denial is a beautiful thing :)
Grahamk
  • Wrote on 2 Dec, at 12:39PM
Nice response Steve from Sensis. We have some solid stats here from trusted sources that the Sensis products have a good story to tell and will do for some time yet.

I get tired of all the traditional media slamming from all these digital evangelists.
DIFFUSION
  • Wrote on 2 Dec, at 01:42PM
Sensis uses such a standard old media argument using the same old limited media awareness statistics to back it up. People should take a look at the foggy statistics they send to customers to back the use of the print edition. The point here is that I was challenging prevailing notions that somehow print as in the phone book is going to survive. It's not. Only yesterday I saw more than 100 Yellow Page print editions sitting uncollected outside a housing block in Paddington. Sensis has plenty of stats to push their case but few relate to the print book and Roy Morgan's projections (simply based on books distributed only rather than actually audited readership) have at best same reliability as the advertising awareness figures. Let's all face it..this kind of print media is obsolete and is largely driven by inefficient telcos like Telstra to support advertising revenues. They would do well to actually ask people whether they wished to receive these books as well as reduce buy rates. Even my chiropractor has moved his listings to Google on the basis that Yellow Pages no longer deliver the level of enquiries that match the cost.
Grahamk
  • Wrote on 3 Dec, at 05:11PM
DIFFUSION your argument is based on two points:

You saw some Yellow pages outside a block of flats.
Your chiropractor has moved to google.

Wow this really is substantial research. The market research of one! hmmm
DIFFUSION
  • Wrote on 3 Dec, at 05:21PM
it's a blog. if you read the full blog you might find i have done a little more research that. Sensis' research on the paper editions is fairly anecdotal and is based on books in print. standard old media thinking. you should read some of the marketing material Sensis puts out to justify continuing this arcane exercise. its thin.
CamC
  • Wrote on 3 Dec, at 11:40PM
Im reading this blog post on my monitor thats propped up with yellow pages still in plastic wrapping.

The print version is always going to be relevant, just to a smaller and smaller audience as time goes on and distribution should reflect that. You cant tell people how to do things just accommodate for it and plan for the future even it means short term dips in advertising revenue as PrincePlanet has pointed out.

My advice to Steve@Sensis is MAKE YELLOWPAGES.COM.AU BETTER. You have the brand and as you have mentioned record traffic increases but I suspect this is partly due to brand awareness. The average non-tech-savvy punters are of course going to stick to what they know when it comes to venturing into the online directories but sooner or later theyll find something better.

Ive been watching yellowpages.com.au for a couple of years at it feels quite stagnant. Predictive AJAX search results only provide short term awesomeness. Sooner or later something like yelp.com is going to hit our shores (unless theres something cool that I dont know about yet - google local is pretty solid) and make Yellow look like Altavista.

You can turnaround and say but we dont do social, but its what we want.
simonr
  • Wrote on 4 Dec, at 02:05PM
CamC I think youve really hit this on the head. Despite whatever stats Steve@Senis can trot out the print business is going to decline and there other primary channel (web) is rubbish.

I would use google anyday over Yellowpages.com.au they have had so long to get this right and they just have not been able to yet, probably becuase they have their collective heads in the sand saying print will continue on strong.

The Yellow in car is an attempt to innovate and keep the lifecycle of the print product going, all credit for effort but again with a smartphone and even in car internet (its probably not that far away from being mainstream) this is also an idea with a short life span.
melanie.burns@ymca.o
  • Wrote on 15 Jan, at 01:03PM
I'm just the voice of one person, but I was not happy with the Yellow in Car being delivered (when I didn't request it) purely for the waste of paper/production. Green not Yellow.
Unsunscribe
  • Wrote on 8 Feb, at 02:04PM
Sensis are very scared. A billion dollar print product that, yes a very small (shrinking) amount of society find useful. Advertisers are beginning to smell a rat and are leaving it in droves. It amazes me that Sensis talk about their carbon footprint and do not allow people to unsubscribe to this useless directory.

I witnessed a guy delivering the printed directory and had a chat with him. I asked him how it works re unsubscribe lists. he said that he had never been given an unsubscribe list. Indded a friend of mine who did try to unsubscribe was still delivered a directory...

This matter should be taken to the streets. or in 2010 'taken to the social networks.)

Watch this space - lets set one up!!

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