ALBANY, N.Y. -- It's been a fixture on kitchen counters,refrigerator tops and junk drawers for decades.
But today, the Yellow Pages is a bit too ubiquitous for some, withthe number of phone books published annually in the U.S.outnumbering the population by 2-to-1.
Although the $17 billion-a-year industry is showing remarkableresilience as other advertising-driven businesses suffer, it hasbecome a familiar target in state legislatures, where lawmakershave tried -- unsuccessfully, so far -- to place limits on thedistribution of phone books.
The Yellow Pages Association, an industry trade group, calls 2008the industry's "most challenging year to date with regard toefforts at the state level to restrict directory publishers'ability to freely deliver phone books." Recent legislation thatwould empower residents to opt out of receiving phone books hasfailed or stalled in at least seven states.
The association has paid outside lobbyists about $50,000 so farthis year to defend it in communities across the country. Two mainpoints the group tries to get across are that phone books helppromote local businesses and that they are made almost entirelyfrom wood scraps collected at saw mills and recycled paper.
In Albany, City Councilman Joseph Igoe is trying to build supportfor a law that would limit the distribution of phone books andrequire publishers to make it easy for people to halt delivery.Igoe said the issue came to his attention when he campaigneddoor-to-door last spring and saw phone books wrapped in plasticlittering sidewalks, driveways and lawns.
If Igoe succeeds in passing legislation, it will be noteworthy.Proposals have been floated -- without success -- by legislaturesin Alaska, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolinaand Washington.
Some residents in Seattle and other communities in King County,Wash., receive phone books from as many as four differentpublishers, said Tom Watson, a waste-prevention specialist for theregion. "There hasn't been a good way to opt out," he said.
Phone book publishers acknowledge that many households andbusinesses receive more phone directories than they need. But theycall it a sign of competition in a healthy business and argue thatthe marketplace, not the government, should determine the number ofphone books distributed.
"The ones that get used will remain, and the ones that don't willgo away," said Joe Walsh, president and chief executive ofYellowBook USA Inc., the nation's largest independent directorypublisher with a circulation of about 128 million phone books in 48states.
For years, phone companies dominated the directory business andpublished the only phone book available in many markets. Federalrules enacted in the late 1990s required phone companies to providelistings to independent publishers at a reasonable cost and ignitedan explosion of competition.
Why?
"Because there's money in those yellow pages," said David Goddard,senior analyst of the yellow-pages group for Simba Information, aStamford, Conn., media-research company.
Last year, directory publishers logged roughly $16.8 billion inrevenue. That figure is on pace to rise to $17.2 billion this year,and $17.6 billion in 2009, according to Simba's projections.
The growth is being driven by independent publishers, Goddard said.
YellowBook, for example, logged $406.1 million in revenue duringthe three months that ended in June, up 9.3 percent from the sameperiod last year. During the same period, Idearc -- Verizon'sformer yellow-pages business, which it spun off in 2006 -- reportedrevenue that fell 5.1 percent to $1.5 billion.
And while other advertising-driven businesses -- particularlynewspapers and magazines -- have been struggling as their readersand advertisers migrate to the Internet, the old-fashioned printedcopy remains king in the directory business.
A use study conducted by statistical research firm KnowledgeNetworks/SRI estimates that Americans referred to print yellowpages advertisements 13.4 billion times last year, compared with3.8 billion online listings.
"They really have to focus on print," Goddard said, noting thatonline ads make up less than 9 percent of yellow pages' revenue."The Internet is the sexy new technology out there, but it isn'twhere most of their money is coming from. It's coming from themom-and-pop stores that want to be in that yellow-pages book."
Some say the excess phone books are creating a costly environmentalproblem for local governments. Others call them a neighborhoodnuisance.
Igoe, the Albany city councilman, said he has heard many complaintsfrom residents, including one from a man who said he wrecked hissnowblower when he hit a bunch of phone books buried under the snowon the sidewalk.