Early last year, I did a blog entry on the future of the fixed line phone, raising the possibility that they will go the way of the typewriter and buggy whip. In a country where most people now own a mobile phone, fewer are choosing to have landlines in their homes, especially if they don’t run any kind of business from home.
An equally interesting question is the future of the phone book. When was the last time you looked anything up in the phone book? I can’t for the life of me remember the last time I had one. As with most people, I always look up the number on the net. Like the traditional print media, phone books are continuing to die.
The reports on a recent survey done by Harris Interactive found that 70 per cent of adults in the US “rarely or never” use the phone book. That number is likely to increase as more people take to smart phones. Services like Google are a lot easier to use than thumbing your way through a massive tome.
Last week, Telstra subsidiary Sensis announced it was cutting 120 jobs with consumers moving away from away from traditional print-based data such as phone books to online and mobile search technology.
And yet Sensis, which printed about 20 million phone books last financial year – or almost one for every person in the nation of 22.5 million people – says it will contuinue to produce phone books.
“Print directories remain a core part of Sensis’ business and they will continue to play a role in our long-term strategy,” a Sensis spokesman said.
“Nowadays, consumers have more choice when it comes to how they search and access information and we expect the use of digital platforms like online, mobile, voice, as well as search engine marketing and tablet devices will continue to increase. Millions of Australian still rely on the print directories each week and in the future we expect that print will continue to complement these digital platforms.”
That’s despite the fact that many phone books end up getting recycled.
So what’s the future of the phone book? Check the trend in America where regulators last year approved applications by phone companies to stop distributing residential white pages. It’s not a complete wipe out. Print directories with business and government listings, information pages and yellow pages will still be delivered. But it’s only a matter of time before that goes too, and it’s probably only a matter of time before we see it happening here.
Of course, there are arguments for keeping phone books. There are many people, particularly a large section of the elderly and those in remote locations, who don’t have computer or internet access. And Sensis insists that there are millions who still use the old phone book. That is if you believe the Sensis methodology.
We also have to remember that there are still lots of business that still advertise in the Yellow Pages. They still see it as a worthwhile investment.
An alternative method might be to introduce a system where people can opt-in to receiving the paper phone book, or maybe opt out. That way, those who absolutely need a paper phone book can continue to receive them without wasting too much money printing the damn things.
For sure, this is going to be an issue that will play out over the next few years as we migrate from paper to digital. Think phone books, think newspapers, think financial statements.
When was the last time you used a phone book? Do you think we still need them?
February 22, 2011
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41 comments
I use phone books regularly. They are often easier to browse and scan visually than online services, and are usually more comprehensive.
Warning: old codger/codgerina comment — the typeface needs to be bolder and bigger.Professor Rosseforp – February 22, 2011, 6:18PM
“We also have to remember that there are still lots of business that still advertise in the Yellow Pages. They still see it as a worthwhile investment.”
Small businesses aren’t renowned for being savvy at spending their cash. For most it’s the only advertising they do – they’d have no way of knowing if it works or not.
Dave | Melbourne – February 23, 2011, 8:19AM
I think they should be issued on a request basis.
Every year my apartment building receives 25+ phone books each time (whitepages + yellow pages). Every single one of them gets put in the recycling bin with 2 weeks of delivery as nobody takes them from the foyer.
It is a horrible waste of resources.
Miss Cremorne | Cremorne – February 23, 2011, 8:25AM
6 or 7 years since I used phone book. Why are they still printing them..? What a waste.
I live in a small country town where the phone books get delivered to the Post Office, not your home. About 90% of ’em end up in the recycling. Nobody wants them.
Yellow pages however will not disppear until businesses stop paying to be listed in them…
Hanging Judge Jeffries | Central VIC – February 23, 2011, 8:49AM
There is a site to opt out of having the books delivered.
https://www.directoryselect.com.au/ds/mutt | sydney – February 23, 2011, 9:49AM
Scrap it all, the move to electronic will be immediate as a result. There is no need to use paper stuff any more, whereas there is a need to NOT use paper.
Mark – February 23, 2011, 9:50AM
You already can opt-out of phone book deliveries (unfortunately only for up to three years at a time). I’d encourage anyone to opt out of this waste of paper!
https://www.directoryselect.com.au/ds/
Dave | Sydney – February 23, 2011, 9:56AM
One of the greatest wastes of paper ever….
It’s not that they aren’t useful for people who like them, it’s just that those people aren’t as numerous anymore. Visit any large apartment block and you’ll find maybe 10% pick up a new phone book set every year… the rest go straight to the recycling bin..
There should be a way to opt out.
Mind you, they are useful for sitting computer monitors on…
David | Sydney – February 23, 2011, 10:02AM
But, Professor Rosseforp, if they were purely digital, you could make the typeface as big and as bold as you like, simply by pressing Ctrl+Plus!
Schwolop – February 23, 2011, 10:05AM
Sensis continues to cause the pulping of trees and production of tons of CO2 gasses by creating useless, redundent business directories purely because they can still milk substantial advertising revenue from the listings.
Many small businesses are for various reason scared to drop their listing. But the reality, which Sensis privately knows, is that better than 95% of these books would be lucky to be opened even once in a year.
It is a shocking and cynical waste that we as a society should no longer sanction.
The answer is for Yellow and White pages from now on should be Opt In only, for the small minority (elderly etc.) who don’t operate digitally.Milo | Melb – February 23, 2011, 10:23AM
It must be a bit rich up in the upper echelons of air-conditioned big business to tell the rest of the nation to do without just because someone sitting and writing in an office wants to save a tree.
Get out more and see how the rest of live.Glen Hu – February 23, 2011, 10:27AM
If you go to the Yellow Pages website – there is an option at the bottom of the screen to order/cancel phone books. This allows you to cancel delivery for any/all of the phone books.
Manda | Melb – February 23, 2011, 10:27AM
I was recently doing a huge spring clean at home when I found a set of phone books from 2004 lurking under the corner table in the living room, so that shows how long since I’ve used them!
Every time the new phone books turn up at my unit block, they sit there for about a month with only maybe one or two people bothering to take them. Once a month is up, I take off the plastic and put them all in the recycle bins.
Nearly everyone in this building has internet so they look up phone numbers on that. I know a few people in the building have also ditched their landline, me included.
Everyone else I know doesn’t use phone books, with the exception of my parents even though they do have internet.
Boo Boo – February 23, 2011, 10:29AM
I’d love to ditch the ‘phone book. Only problem is the Search engine used in the White and Yellow Pages quite often gives way too many results if you do not have the exact name or address of who you are looking for.
Phoned – February 23, 2011, 10:30AM
The book is dead! You just have to see the Telstra data to see that the book is bleeding advertising revenues. The fact is that businesses can advertise more effectively online and track the results (even phone calls) from the higher end digital market companies based in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Perth. Gone are the days when a business slaps an ad in a book that few people use and hope for the best. RIP Yellow Pages
Yellow Who? | Brisbane – February 23, 2011, 10:27AM
Usually, an open top truck will come through the street and drop yellow/white pages onto each house’s front gate where i live in inner city, Sydney (not sure if the opt out thingy noted in previous comment works?). I have tossed them out into recycling bin directly without opening the plastic wrap for 6 years!
I think Sensis is still printing it as they charge the advertisers, however, they should reduce the numbers printed as most people do not seem to use or need it anymore! And only make the books available say at Post Office or Telstra shops. Am sure they would still recycle the majority of them!!
oz1999 | Sydney – February 23, 2011, 11:59AM
Agree with miss cremorne. At our apartment building most sit for weeks until someone just throws them in the recycling. You can opt out in Melbourne, which we did, but it looks like ours is still being delivered. It’s such an incredibly waste of resources, I can’t believe we haven’t set up an opt-in system by now
M | northcote – February 23, 2011, 12:11PM
What’s a phone book?
c1ee | Sydney – February 23, 2011, 12:42PM
I always like to keep a phone book in the house just in case the net is down (I don’t have a smart phone) but I can’t even remember the last time I looked at it.
Wendy | Melbourne – February 23, 2011, 1:06PM
Of course phone books are still necessary. How else will short people reach light bulbs?
Karen – February 23, 2011, 1:21PM
I live in an apartment complex, I tried to “Opt out” last year only to be told that ALL the residents of my apartments have to also “Opt out” as it is apparently too difficult to not deliver the maximum quantity.
And people whinge about government bureaucracy!, so-called “efficient” private enterprise usually manages to do far worse.
DC | Melbourne – February 23, 2011, 1:40PM
Phone books are useful for scaffolding in conjunction with milk crates, and the Police Departments still sometimes needs them to punch suspects in the stomach without leaving bruises. Also, there is no reasonable substitute for the yellow pages when trying to find parts from Auto Wreckers.
Sean | Sydney – February 23, 2011, 2:17PM
Printing phone books/yellow pages is a complete waste of money and resources in this day and age. If the elderly don’t want to learn how to use the internet, then they can pay extra for them.
Dave – February 23, 2011, 2:30PM
Put your money where your mouth is and go to http://www.directoryselect.com.au to cancel these publications. I just did it, and it feels GREAT !
Joanna – February 23, 2011, 2:39PM
At least five years (probably more like ten – I can’t remember the last time).
BUT I find the Yellow/White page web sites extremely unfriendly. Either they flood me with stuff that’s nothing to do with my request or tell me it doesn’t exist when I know it does.
For White pages I need something like the “Browse” function on library search engines do for authors. We’ve got computers so a smarter version that suggests (a la Google) alternative spellings.
For Yellow pages, I got so frustrated with it telling me garbage that I no longer use it at all. I just use Google, which usually comes up with what I want on some third party business site or other.
ITPerson | Melbourne – February 23, 2011, 2:44PM
The option to opt out of the White and Yellow Pages already exists and Sensis took steps in 2010 to make it easier to find this option online.
If, like me, you use electronic forms it really is the environmentally responsible thing to do. Say that, I do have a few Gen Y friends that still like to use the Yellow Pages when searching for something in particular and for the maps at the front of the Yellow Pages.
I no longer see the use of the white pages and of the two I would support the end of its production.
elm | ACT – February 23, 2011, 3:43PM
I hardly ever use a phone book, and when you think of the amount of paper required to print 22.5 million books, it’s somewhat absurd. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re irrelevant, but I believe an opt-in system, such as picking up a copy from Australia Post, would be more economical and enviromental.
scarface_au – February 23, 2011, 5:02PM
Thanks for the link, Mutt! Just cancelled my phone books for the next three years with a just a couple of minutes effort. For the last 3-4 years my phone books have gone straight from the doorstep to the recycling. I agree that it is a massive waste.
For those who missed it above: https://www.directoryselect.com.au/ds/
Angus | Fitzroy North – February 23, 2011, 6:23PM
Any business who sees it as a worthwhile “investment” to advertise in the print version of Yellow Pages is an irrelevant business. I haven’t advertised my business in there for years. I haven’t looked in a print version for years. I have online advertising alone and YES, I ask every client where they found me & no-one in the last 6 years at least has found us in the print version of Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages print is a waste of paper and a waste of money and a waste of space and the prices are a total rip off!
Jules | Mornington – February 23, 2011, 7:53PM
They make great door stops
GAA – February 23, 2011, 8:05PM
These directories lob by the multi-palletload at the receiving docks of the big commercial buildings, creating a nuisance and staying there for weeks unwanted until eventually someone gives a damn and is brave enough to authorise having them picked up for recycling. Total waste of resources, time and effort.
Terry – February 23, 2011, 9:34PM
Print media had limited space, so white pages used an initial. Have you ever wondered why the white pages on-line limits to an initial instead of allowing the possibility to limit the search by using a first name?
Also, have you ever been searching the yellow pages on-line for a local supplier and got hits from all around the city because the business has asked to list that way?
As long as the listing companies make it less convenient to use them than a simple search engine, they will continue to lose business just as the print has lost to on-line.
ifonly – February 23, 2011, 10:50PM
the government should discontinue phone books and make full yellow & white pages phone directory services free — the cost of producing and distributing the unused hardcopies is enough to pay for setting up a free voice version (if telstra won’t agree to making their gouging service free). if you could do all the search you can with google on US numbers (service and product categories / trading names / reverse number / full name / street listing / etc) and give full information (number / address / hours / concise service description) verbally, users would have access to all the same information they do with the paper version, with no need for a computer to access it — after all if you don’t have a phone what are you going to call them with ?
alternatively, they could subsidize the purchase of a T-Hub so people who can be without a visual reference have access to one.
I don’t have any phone books at home or work, I keep a mini-yellow pages in the glove box just for emergencies, although my TomTom GPS has more extensive business listings in its database than a phone book anyway.
krzystoff – February 24, 2011, 12:34AM
I would much prefer to receive a DVD. It could contain ALL Australian white and yellow pages and be much cheaper to produce.
tnkc | Sydney – February 24, 2011, 2:42AM
I think Sensis would base their advertising rates on audience reach. They deliver to most housholds in Australia, so would claim one of the largest market reaches possible. What they ignore is readership, or usage, which is a small fraction of reach, and getting smaller all the time.
It took a long time for them to offer the opt out option, and they still don’t treat it seriously, such as for people living in home units.
The only good news is that each year both the Yellow and White Pages books get smaller as the number of entries decline.
stop_the_waste | Cammeray – February 24, 2011, 7:15AM
Yes phone books are an environmental disaster. I travel thru the city and suburbs for my work and see 1000’s left out in the weather or abandoned in foyers everywhere. Yes they should only be opt in,perhaps pick up at the post office like the old days. If the massive waste that is the whole process of making something and then throwing it away continues( like excess packaging, junk mail,etc), will it be any wonder when the planet says enough and dooms us all?
seen it coming | brissy for now – February 24, 2011, 7:19AM
There are a lot of different arguments here. Absolutely, the future will be digitally led, we are already seeing that through the growth in traffic on the Yellow Pages digital network. However, there is still a role for the print directories, a proportion of the community still rely on print. Going forward, Sensis will continue to innovate and look for ways to make the books more relevant for advertisers and users – they will complement the digital network. And, everyone has a choice – you can opt out by ringing 1800008292 or by logging on to http://www.directoryselect.com.au Damian, Sensis Corporate Affairs
Damian | Melbourne – February 24, 2011, 8:13AM
Telephone books should be available on an opt-out basis. Books are delivered to premises whether there is a fixed-line or not. Terrible wastage by Telstra.
Barraman | Hawthorn – February 24, 2011, 10:04AM
I use both.
However I find that the website is badly maintained. Businesses
that closed long ago still come up, and new ones don’t appear, but check the printed phone book and it is correct.
When they get the online systems fixed, by all means ditch the phone books.Rebecca | NSW – February 24, 2011, 10:57AM
I actually blogged about this the other day. Phone books are evidently becoming more and more pointless every day but what’s bizarre is Sensis’s attempts to extend the life of phone books through silly product extensions like “Yellow Pages in the Car”. Don’t get me started on their useless website either!
http://www.timfitzgerald.com.au/yellow-pages-your-days-are-numbered/
Tim FitzGerald | Sydney – February 24, 2011, 11:32AM
Thanks for your comments, Damian from Sensis Corporate Affairs. Could you expalin why it is not possible to unsubscribe if you liev in a block of units? I read that is is too complicated for the people delivering to track. But all you need is a count of how many people have opted out, and subtraqct that from the total number of units. Or maybe just deliver enough for 75% of the units. You know most of them never get opened any way.
Also, I unsubscibed (I live in a ahouse) and still got Yellow Pages delivered to me, so still some problems.
stop_the_waste | Cammeray – February 24, 2011, 12:38PM
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brisbanetimes.com.au/action/printArticle?id=2193771
the blatant ignorance and general slander based on unreliable statistics is rife in these comments. who are you people?? ex employees?? maybe from 20 years ago! if you had any idea of the recycling program sensis takes part in, or the fact that distribution is actually through a third party inviting community clubs to raise much needed funds, you would realise that sensis has outstanding community and environmental impact processes in place. as far as the book being dead, it is true that print media is in decline across a wide range of industries – just look at borders books! this is why sensis has long been investigating and planning for the move towards changing customer needs and technology trends. even if you choose to search by Google because it is “just better” you’re being very naive… where do you think the data comes from? do google have f2f sales collecting customer details and selling google positioning?? come on haters… if you have been jaded by yellow in the past, fine. but don’t just post mindless, incorrect slander for the sake of a feeling good to take your revenge somehow. you think a company as big as sensis would be as ignorant to just rest on its laurels and think that the book will perform as it has for so long? remember yellow pages is worldwide. there is a a lot going on that you have no idea about, clearly, and it would serve you well to maybe think about what you post, not just based on gossip or unconfirmed information. if you don’t like the book, don’t bloody use it. good luck to you next time you need a plumber at 2am…
BAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!
wooohooohoohhoooohooo!!!
aaahhh……..
Is that a member of the Stopps family posing as ‘Anonymous’???
I love reading a rational argument written by someone who left school in grade 2. Good to see that university education being put to such good use – you must make your parent proud ‘Anonymous’!!
OMG not the PLUMBER AT 2AM DEFENCE!
Honestly, I am 57 years old, and not once in my 57 years have I ever needed a Plumber at 2AM.
And if I did, I have the fridge magnet of a lovely plumber who’s business I found on GOOGLE and its says “24HR EMERGENCY SERVICE” so if I ever have that emergency I will go to my fridge and not the bloody phone book!
PS – my fridge is in my KITCHEN. the phone books are in the RECYCLING BIN!
If no one reads the books why did so many people in Brisbane complain of the new size directories being too small to read? Who are these people and why aren’t they online yet??