Phone Books Under Eco-Attack
By Graphic Arts Online Staff -- Graphic Arts Online, August 13, 2008
Telephone directories, one of the most resilient and profitable print products, is coming under fire from consumers as a threat to the environment and a plain nuisance. Phone books published annually in the U.S. outnumber the population by 2 to 1. Lawmakers in many states have tried to place limits on distribution, but so far have failed. Recent legislation focuses on establishing an opt out process.
Phone book publishers acknowledge that many households and businesses receive more directories than they need. But they say it is a sign of competition in a healthy business and argue that the marketplace, not the government, should determine the number of phone books distributed. Environmentalists complain phonebooks comprise a major part of many landfills.
Indeed, the $17 billion-a-year industry is showing remarkable resilience as other advertising-driven businesses—particularly newspapers and magazines—suffer as readers and advertisers migrate to the Internet. Moves against phonebooks threaten not only giant directory printers RR Donnelley and Quebecor but other printers who have entered the field to produce hundreds of demographically targeted phonebooks.
A usage study conducted by statistical research firm Knowledge Networks/SRI estimates that Americans referred to print Yellow Pages advertisements 13.4 billion times last year, compared with 3.8 billion online listings. There are 200 publishers of Yellow Pages in the U.S. and the industry expects to top $17 billion in revenue for the first time this year.
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