From: le@main.lekno.ws   
      
   Louis Epstein  wrote:   
   > Adam H. Kerman  wrote:   
   >> David Samuel Barr  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>>. . .   
   >>   
   >>>Unless the business model has changed in   
   >>>recent years the Yellow Pages were always   
   >>>an advertising medium, not a reference   
   >>>directory; businesses had to pay to be   
   >>>listed, with the majority also buying the   
   >>>display ads which were the bulk of the   
   >>>space of the book.   
   >>   
   >> Not correct. Every business subscriber of the incumbent phone company got   
   >> a free listing per main telephone number at each location. He could request   
   >> a classification or it would be assigned. The Yellow Pages were contracted   
   >> to specific phone companies and telephone geography. If a business wanted   
   >> to be listed not a subscriber to that telephone company and/or outside   
   >> the geographical area, it had to be set up in the list provided to the   
   >> Yellow Pages advertising bureau. Typically this required payment of   
   >> foreign listing fee and the business would also appear in the white pages.   
   >>   
   >> The majority of business subscribers did not buy display ads as they   
   >> were hideously expensive. In-column ads were cheaper, but even minimal   
   >> advertising like use of bold print cost hundreds of dollars a year.   
   >>   
   >> There were of course business with nationwide advertising accounts that   
   >> placed listings in telephone directories throughout the country.   
   >>   
   >>>It didn't matter which phone service the company used (and of course   
   >>>for most of the past that wasn't even an issue).   
   >>   
   >> Yes, it did. If the directory publisher wasn't contracted to display   
   >> listings of both white and yellow pages with a specific telephone   
   >> company, the desired listing could be accomodated only as a foreign   
   >> listing. In most states, there had been state laws imposed on incumbent   
   >> telephone companies and sometimes cable telephony requiring distribution   
   >> of phone directories. These laws did not apply to VoIP and these numbers   
   >> are generally not included for free.   
   >>   
   >> When there were alternate directory publishers, the listings they   
   >> included were under their own rules and not subject to state law.   
   >>   
   >   
   > My new (2023 edition) Yellow Pages have a white-page section yet   
   > existing businesses are not all in it.   
   > I note that the yellow-page section has fewer display ads than in   
   > days of yore...the white-page section continues to have some highlighted   
   > entries (I used to pay for that for my ISP).   
      
   My White Pages arrived today.   
   The Westchester-Putnam + Greenwich book is TWO VOLUMES,with a   
   business listing section (significantly longer than the one in   
   the Yellow Pages but still not including Suburban Propane)   
   taking up most of the first volume,which begins with the   
   traditional phone-company-information section and ends with   
   residential listings up to Marc Fried,and the second volume   
   being residential listings from Marion Fried onwards.   
      
      
   > -=-=-   
   > The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,   
   > at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)