Why We Don’t Have Phone Books Anymore

I could have titled this:

Dead Advertising Mediums.

Read this from Roy H. Williams:

Google is the new phone book. Like the Yellow Pages of yesterday, it is the principal resource for buyers who are currently, consciously in the market for a product or service and have no preferred provider. Like the White Pages of yesterday, Google delivers your telephone number, street address, (and business hours) to customers who have already chosen you as their preferred provider.

 

Customers who come to you through mass media will often be credited to your digital efforts due to the “White Pages” function of Google. They had already chosen you as their preferred provider, but were looking online for your street address, phone number, or business hours.

 

That is the 7th and 8th points from a newsletter that Roy H. Williams wrote earlier this year that I’m doing a series on right now as a ScLoHo extra.  Go here to read all 20 points.

Advertising in the phone book is a complete waste of money in the United States of America.  

I’ve been preaching this for years.

I have nothing against printed ads, it’s just, like Roy says, not needed at least in the phone book.

I have nothing to add to what Roy said, except an observation from earlier this month.

On Wednesday July 3rd, I was in the waiting room of a service department getting my car’s air conditioning back in shape for the 90+ degree temps and here’s what I observed.

About a dozen people ranging in age from about 8 to 80 were also in the waiting room.  One was reading a book, everyone else had a mobile phone or tablet that they were using.

A TV was on, but was being ignored by most everyone.

There were also two newspapers that sat untouched on a table until I opened them up.

The Wall Street Journal and our local morning paper the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

The Wall Street Journal had 28 pages total and an appropriate number of ads, but they could have had a few more.

But 28 pages, that is pretty slim for a national newspaper.  Kind of sad.

What was worse was the local paper.

24 total pages.  Maybe 4 pages worth of ads plus the classifieds.  They could not make money with this pitiful amount of paid ads.  This was the day before the 4th of July and a few decades ago it would have been stuffed full of ads for holiday sales and now… nothing.

Sadly for the future of these papers, no one cared to even read the paper.

As a kid, I used to be a paperboy, delivering every afternoon when I got home from school.

These days, no one seems to read the daily newspapers and with a lack of readers the advertisers ads are not getting seen.

Everyone sitting in the waiting room was watching and reading their own personal screens.

Is it any wonder that there are so few ads and so few pages printed?

Mass media isn’t dead, but certain mediums are.

Contrast the phone book and newspapers with the data about the mass media I work in.

Radio.  Surveys continue to show that over 90% of people in the United States of America listen every week.

We got the results for radio listening in Fort Wayne and my station, WOWO radio has the largest weekly audience with over 140,000 people choosing to listen to WOWO every week.  Unlike the newspaper that just sits there untouched.  Or the phone books that get tossed in the recycling bins the day they are delivered.

If you are paying to advertise in the phone book or a newspaper, let’s talk.  Email me: Scott@WOWO.com