Yet another article has come out this week about the decline of Print Yellow Pages (PYP), this time from the reputable Wall Street Journal titled, “Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers.” Big news, right?

Now over the past year or so we’ve seen some decline in the Yellow Pages, so the information presented isn’t particularly new news.  However, someone has got to cut PYP some slack! All this negative media is just downright unfair.  It’s seems that people are now just publishing these stories because it’s the “cool” thing to do.  Like there’s some sort of anti-PYP clique everyone is trying to get into. But in all reality, PYP is still a VERY reputable source for local business information. Yes, it has declined, but not to the point of becoming a minority that these stories are painting it out to be.

The Kelsey Group has come to the aid of PYP by taking a stance on the WSJ article written with their own blog, “More Overwrought Yellow Pages Coverage.” They too agree that to dismiss PYP so quickly would be a big mistake for a lot of advertisers, “Yellow Pages remains a critical source of calls and leads in many categories, and it seems unlikely that small-business advertisers will soon be able to replace these leads with another source, at least not easily or efficiently.”

TMP Directional Marketing also recently commissioned a local search usage study with comScore that found that even though Search Engines are now the primary source of local business information (31% for Search Engines vs. 30% for PYP), Print Yellow Pages are still the most popular secondary source  when users can not find what they need on Search Engines or Internet Yellow Pages.

And finally, for more information on the decline of the Print Yellow Pages and the REAL truth behind all the smoke in mirrors presented by the Media, you can check out the white paper by TMPDM entitled, “POV: Say Goodbye to YellowPages? Or Maybe Not.”  In this analysis, TMPDM examines what Yellow Pages publishers are doing to combat this decline, how they’re expanding online, and the innovative ways that companies can still take advantage of such a powerful medium.

So yes, Print Yellow Pages is declining. But is it extinct? Far from it!

NOTE: The following white papers are available to download here
1. Local Search Marketing in a Multi Tasking World (discusses TMP DM/comScore Local Search Usage Study Q2 2008)
2. POV: Say Goodbye to YellowPages? Or Maybe Not (discusses PYP publishers)