Newsletter Archive - Environment
How will you respond??
04/13/2010 - I ask that question to those of you in this industry after another recent dismissive commentary from a writer at the once esteemed Chicago Tribune. On April 7th, the writer, Mary Schmich, penned an essay titled "Instead of tossing latest phone book, you can stop it from being delivered" (link to full article). Here are some excerpts from her comments:
The latest Yellow Pages arrived with a thud in my neighborhood the other day, and, from the looks of it, a lot of those fat books will still be lying on stoops and doorsteps when the world ends.I always love definitive conclusions drawn from the observation of just one person. It's such a scientific conclusion. Perhaps the woman was just having a bad day and needed to kick something. I've noticed that about people who need to live in Chicago especially if they root for the Cubs.
On Tuesday, I saw a woman climb her front stairs and, with an annoyed look, kick the hefty lump out of the way rather than pick it up. It plopped to the ground beside the porch, where it seemed destined to molder in perpetuity.
Bad, bad, bad.
Yet I was empathetic. She was probably thinking: I didn't ask for this blob at my front door. Why should I have to work to get rid of it? Ignore it and maybe it will go away.
But the Yellow Pages book won't just go away. It sits outside your home like a puppy yapping to come in. Finally, you relent. Bend over, lug it into your arms and let it lurk around the house until you have the energy to toss it out.Given the issues we have with obesity in this country perhaps print Yellow Pages can become part of a new exercise regiment…
As soon as it's gone, there's another big fat yellow book lounging on the steps.
Before banishing the printed Yellow Pages from my life forever Tuesday, though, I decided to open them one last time.While I was glad to see that at least she opened the book, I do take real issue with three of her comments:
A distant era washed over me. Flimsy pages of tiny type and big ads. Repairmen, locksmiths, bankruptcy lawyers. It was strange and familiar, like a whiff of my father's aftershave.
Ah, the days when I could read the teeny type without glasses. When I had the patience to leaf through pages unrelated to my quest. When I could still alphabetize.
- What kind of aftershave are you buying for your Dad for Father's Day? Perhaps we should start the conversation there.
- This woman who probably has some slick new 4G/iPhone that her life revolves around and yet she's calling print Yellow Pages type "tiny"?? Are you kidding?? Have you tried looking at the really small type and icons on those small phone screens without your reading glasses??
- Flimsy pages?? Are we sure she's not reading here own company's newspaper??
Efficiency is king now, though, and the paper waste hard to tolerate. The publishers of Yellow Pages - they range from national companies to regional ones - know they have a problem.
Like all businesses that involve the old-fashioned medium of paper, they're moving their product online, but they say that there are still more people who want the book than the online data.
Madame, you're right, Yellow Page publishers do have a problem - we know the books are still heavily used even if people like you won't admit it. Does she really think some $28+ billion is spent by small/midsized businesses on Yellow Pages because those businesses are morons??
And now my favorite part in these type missives:
To be more environmentally friendly, they've switched inks, adopted paper that doesn't require the harvesting of trees and are using less of it. Books that used to weigh 22.5 pounds have been pared to as little as 18.
That's still a lot of paper. And it's pointless if you don't use it.
Well Halleluiah!!! At least one writer took the time to do some research and found the industry is not responsible for the neutering of the world's forests for its paper. But the overall tone and direction of her comments bring me to the key message of this article - as an industry, we're never going to have the luxury of a mass media marketing campaign to convince people that the print Yellow Pages is still a key tool in peoples local shopping. We could talk for hours why that is so, but understand, it's not going to happen. So any effort to change the perceptions back to the reality that we know exists, that print STILL WORKS, has to come from a grass roots effort from those of you in the industry rebutting cynicism like this wherever and whenever you find it. It has to come from those of that make a living in this industry, that have a vested interest in wanting to set the record straight.
If on the other hand you believe what people like this are saying, even in the face of all of the research and advertiser feedback on how print helps them grow their business, perhaps you should be seeking employment in a different industry.
But if you're like me, and think this another example of a woman who needs to hear the other side of the story, please join me in sending her a note at mschmich@tribune.com.Or you can send me a note at ken@yptalk.com and tell me I'm that doesn't get it.
Either way, how will you respond?