Yellow Pages Trying to Find a Future
July 7, 2011
Search Engine Watch reports, “Search Secures Recognition as Local Business Info Provider.” The article examines information from studies performed by research companies Burke and eMarketer. Each has compiled data on usage for a variety of local-business-information resources. The Yellow Pages performs well when its paper and online ventures are combined, but separately each was roundly beaten by search engines.
Not surprisingly, add revenues for printed Yellow Pages are expected to dwindle into nothingness:
In the long haul, predicted figures decline to the point of near eclipse. By 2015, the predicted ad investment for print directories is just $5 billion. Meanwhile, search investments continue to rise, with the predicted figures for search ad spending increasing by more than 50 percent to $21.5 billion by 2015.
This must inevitably lead to the extinction of printed phone books. Good news if you’re a tree.
Still, how will the Yellow Pages fare in the long run? Depends on how nimble they are with their business model. The print sector is going to be under increasing cost pressure when print and ink are involved.
Cynthia Murrell, July 7, 2011
The addled goose is the author of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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