Remember, paying for that stuff had value in those times. People would buy directories and or pay for advice / direction from others in the know too. Was hard

Remember, paying for that stuff had value in those times. People would buy directories and or pay for advice / direction from others in the know too. Was hard to understand all that was going on out there. The ADS made more sense in that way than they do now. Sometimes, when a specific product was needed, those ADS connected people up in a way everyone found to have value. One thing, perhaps missed today given content marketing, was following the ADS to see who did what. New products, old ones phasing out, where things were, who, and sometimes pretty good reasons why all were found in those ADS. Scanning them was not all fluff. (not always fluff I should say, because yeah. There was fluff)