California joins Colorado and other states that are rejecting the notion that government regulation of private advertising media is good for small business and a smart use of state resources.

We have worked over the past several weeks to educate lawmakers and others in the community about how this unnecessary government regulation not only unfairly targeted directory publishers among many advertising media, but also risked jobs and tax revenue at a time when the state of California could not afford it.

Directory publishers – many who work to provide information to niche communities like LGBT, Spanish-speaking and Chinese speaking residents – employ thousands of Californians and contribute millions in tax revenue to the state budget.  They also perform a valuable service by providing a way for consumers and local businesses to connect.

As the legislators learned more about the service we offer to small businesses, and the steps we’ve taken to put in place programs that allow consumers to stop directory delivery if they choose, it became clear that passing this bill into law was not worth the risks it presented.  While in many ways the opportunity to talk to so many Senators about our value has been extremely rewarding, it was also disheartening to encounter the bill’s sponsor resorting to name calling and spreading untruthful claims and erroneous statistics to try to pass this legislation for his own political gain.

Having said all that, it’s important to reiterate again that we strongly believe it doesn’t benefit anyone to deliver a directory to someone who doesn’t want one.  In California, and across the United States, directory publishers remain committed to sustainability and good environmental stewardship.  Our website, www.yellowpagesoptout.com, provides a central and convenient resource for residents who would like to limit or stop delivery to their residence.  And to learn more about the efforts we’re making to reduce our environmental footprint,  read our full 2010 Sustainability Report.

It was great to have so many industry representatives join the discussion. While the number of publishers that participate in consumer choice programs continues to grow, I believe the webinar was especially helpful in answering questions around the need for self-regulation and perceived impacts on advertising.

We know that delivering a directory to someone who doesn’t want one does not make much business sense. Providing people an opportunity to manage delivery is beneficial for both consumers and the environment. And given the dramatic growth in Internet Yellow Pages usage and our other digital tools, a consumer who opts-out of a printed directory still has plenty of access to the local information that we provide.

We’ve seen a number of announcements this year from large Yellow Pages companies announcing consumer choice programs. Idearc recently unveiled its program, which includes printing a toll-free number with opt-out information on all Verizon Yellow Pages’ covers. Idearc is also in the process of developing an online sitelet for consumer choice. Consumers will see a new, clearly marked tab on idearc.com by the end of this year for stopping delivery of printed directories.

In case you missed the webinar, you can view the slides.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution yesterday covered AT&T’s plan for opt-in residential white pages in parts of Georgia.

That news followed on the heels of a survey from the online residential information provider WhitePages.com that found the majority of consumers embrace opt-in residential white pages programs.

The WhitePages.com survey prompted some people to ask if the same applied to Yellow Pages. WhitePages.com CEO Alex Algard responded quickly with a guest post on Greg Sterling’s blog that clarifies his thinking on the issue.

In his opinion, Algard does not believe Yellow Pages “will or should” embrace opt-in for the following reasons:

• Yellow Pages are a proven means of local advertising for small businesses across the country.
• Without access to Yellow Pages, a small business’ ability to attract new customers suffers, thus greatly impacting their ability to generate revenue.
• Yellow Pages play a useful role for consumers, as there is rich content (sometimes richer than what is available online), the listings are generally up-to-date, and the coverage of listings is generally comprehensive.
• There is a viable financial model for Yellow Pages that supports an entire industry.

I applaud Algard for clarifying this position on Greg’s blog. Residential white pages and Yellow Pages are fundamentally different tools that serve different purposes. And the reasons for falling usage of residential white pages – namely, the increase in unlisted cell phone numbers and the information storage capabilities of mobile phones and handsets – don’t necessarily translate to Yellow Pages.

That said, we recognize consumer behaviors are changing and the challenges small businesses face are getting tougher.

For our advertisers, we continue to generate one of the best return on investments of any advertising medium and have tools in place to help measure that, such as our metered ad program. Yellow Pages advertising offers businesses more for their money by generating an average sales ROI of 27:1 for national display advertisers and nearly 13:1 for local display advertisers. No other advertising medium can offer this unmatched ROI for display advertising.

To address changing local search preferences, we offer digital and mobile search platforms, in addition to print. We also have launched www.yellowpagesoptout.com to make it easy and effective for consumers to manage the delivery of Yellow Pages to their doorsteps. But even as we’re focusing more than ever on consumer choice, we think it’s important to recognize that the value of print Yellow Pages directories to both businesses and consumers is still very, very high.