News Digital Media, owners of the online local search directory True Local, has launched a website that undermines the readership of rival Yellow Pages’ print directory.
The website, Yellow Turning Blue, uses Roy Morgan research that shows 77.5% of Australians over 14 use the Sensis-owned Yellow Pages print directory less than once a month or do not use it at all.
The results from Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey also revealed that since 2002 there has been a 51% increase in the number of Australians who use the print edition less than once a month, or not at all.
Research commissioned by NDM from research company CoreData in May involving almost 2000 respondents also revealed consumers’ aversion to the print directory, with more than half of those surveyed (58%) saying they would choose to stop having the directory delivered if given the choice. It also showed that 78% believed Yellow Pages should ask consumers if they want a print directory before delivering it, with more than one in six people admitting to throwing it out.
While a spokesperson for the True Local brand, Kate McQuestin, said the commissioned research and website was in the interest of “accountability and transparency”, Yellow Pages spokesperson Stephen Ronchi has dismissed it as “a marketing campaign to discredit Yellow Pages.”
He told AAP: “It’s not surprising they have chosen to play the man rather than the ball in this campaign, as having been in the market for a number of years now, their business is having limited success attracting users of their products.
“As a result of that, less businesses are advertising with them, leaving them to resort to these types of underhand tactics.”
He added that data from Roy Morgan showed a 5% year-on-year increase in the number of people who used the print directory in the “last seven days” in a survey conducted last year.
