Directory | Speaking Sensis

Positioning the Yellow Pages book for the future

Jane Blackley | 27 October 2011

I’ve seen a lot of changes in our business over the years. We’ve launched websites, we’ve gone mobile and in Adelaide you’ll notice a significant change to the Yellow Pages book that’s currently being distributed.

Adelaide is the first city where the new compact-size Yellow Pages book will be distributed – the height and width of the book has been reduced by 15%.

The change to the new format is one of the biggest transformations in more than 80 years of the Yellow Pages. However, the most exciting thing is that it’s a win-win for people who use the Yellow Pages and people who advertise in the Yellow Pages – our customers.

The compact size book is easier to handle, it’s lighter and we’ve also made a number of new design and layout changes to help users find what their looking for. Things like:

the use of colour to highlight the suburb names in each line listing;
stronger and sharper heading blocks;
improved Fast Find Index;
colour highlights in the Teltales at the top of each page; and
the inclusion of web and email listings.

And, if we’re making it easier for users to search the Yellow Pages book, it means they’re looking for our advertisers’ content and will hopefully go on to purchase a product or service.

The transition to the new compact format Yellow Pages has involved a lot of research over the past 12-18 months. Last year, we trialled the compact-size Yellow Pages book with more than 25,000 users in Sydney and there was strong support for this format – moreso than the existing format.

This result was consistent with the feedback we received from several market surveys and focus groups that were held with our users.

Globally, compact directories, along with other book changes, are already being used by several companies including in the UK, where users and customers are responding more favourably to the new compact-size format directories.

Following Adelaide, the new format book will also be distributed in Brisbane, Perth, Sydney and Melbourne between November 2011 and February 2012.