Come July, make room for new book

Haven’t got enough phone books already? Need a new booster seat? Help is on the way.

In an age when consumers increasingly use the Internet to search for information, Colorado Springs may soon have five telephone directories that offer information the old-fashioned way: on paper.

Peak Power Pages became the fourth directory serving the Springs area in mid-October, when it began distributing more than 80,000 copies of its first directory. The 704-page book is the first of two zoned editions, with a second planned for next spring.

A fifth book is planned by Greater Publishing, which is selling advertising for what it calls The Book. It is scheduled for distribution to 350,000 households in July, according to its Web site, www.391book. com.

Local businesses had just one choice for Yellow Pages advertising until the late 1990s, when a second local directory began publication. A third option arrived in 2002, but the Dex directory now published by R.H. Donnelley Corp. has always been the largest.

“It seems like everyone thinks the market is prime for more books,” said Paul Bircham, coowner of Bircham’s Office Products. “I don’t know how many books the business community can support.”

Ann O’Bannion, Greater Publishing’s owner, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

With five directories, phone book delivery has become almost a yearround business, with Peak Power Pages in October and April, the Yellow Book directory arriving next week, the Dex directory planned for mid-January, the Verizon Yellow Pages for March and The Book for July.

Together, the four existing directories weigh in at 13 pounds.

Directories are also available for Fountain, Woodland Park and the Tri-Lakes area and for specialty markets such as Hispanic and Korean consumers and minority-owned businesses.

“It’s not that extraordinary that you have that many directories, but to have two new books at the same time is unusual,” said David Goddard, senior analyst in Stamford, Conn., for the Yellow Pages Group of Simba Information Inc., a media industry analysis firm.

Independent directory companies, especially local niche publishers, have fueled most of the growth in the Yellow Pages industry, boosting their share of nationwide directory revenue from 6 percent in 1996 to an estimated 35 percent by 2010, Goddard said.

Peak Power Pages is typical of niche directories — it is the first zoned directory in the Springs and offers advertising at a fraction of the cost of Dex, the largest local phone book, and less than half the cost of the other two established competing directories.

“Many local businesses simply can’t afford to pay what Dex is charging, so we are giving them an alternative to cover the entire region at a fraction of the cost,” said Ron Jensen, president of Aaron Communications III Inc., which publishes Peak Power Pages.

Steve Hadden, owner of Signal Graphics, a print shop, said he bought four or five ads in the Peak Power Pages book because “The cost is much more reasonable — you can get a larger full-color ad for less money.”

Jensen has been developing Peak Power Pages for three years and has worked as a directory advertising account executive for AT&T, Dex and Verizon. He also published Peak Computing magazine in the late 1990s in a partnership with The Gazette.

The first edition of the Peak directory covers northern Colorado Springs, which it defines as north of Garden of the Gods Road, Austin Bluffs Parkway and Barnes Road. A second directory for the area south of those streets is planned for distribution in April.

Jensen said the Peak directory doesn’t include traditional residential listings because his survey of potential users found most people search the Internet for such listings, and that they haven’t used that part of printed directories for at least four or five years.

AT&T has asked North Carolina regulators to allow it to delete such listings from its directories, arguing dropping residential listings in its Raleigh phone book alone will eliminate 1.8 million pounds of waste that would have to be recycled.

Despite the lagging use of residential listings, Yellow Pages directories remain the top choice for business listings, Goddard said. Internet advertising accounts for just 7 percent of the $16 billion in nationwide revenue generated by Yellow Pages, he said.

“It’s still quicker and easier to find the business you want in the phone book, than go online to find it,” Goddard said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0234 or wayneh@gazette.com

CONSISTENT AD SPACE

The number of advertising pages in the Dex, Yellow Book and Verizon directories increased only slightly last year, 0.6 percent, after growing 4.7 percent in the previous year.