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Yellow pages were not 100% ads. They were where you got phone numbers and addresses for businesses, which was important pre internet. They did have tons of ads
by eduction 4y ago
Yellow pages were not 100% ads. They were where you got phone numbers and addresses for businesses, which was important pre internet. They did have tons of ads alongside the listings, but the unpaid listings were core to the offering. If you wanted to call for a reservation at a particular restaurant, check movie showtimes at a particular theater, you would go to the yellow pages, and to the regular listings specifically (not ads, although they’d certainly be there trying to entice you elsewhere). (You could also get the numbers via 411 but this cost money, 50 cents or a dollar IIRC).
- Turing_Machine 4y ago> If you wanted to call for a reservation at a particular restaurant, check movie showtimes at a particular theater, you would go to the yellow pages If you wanted to find the number of a particular restaurant, the white pages were far more efficient. The yellow pages were primarily useful when you wanted a list of restaurants, not a specific one. Something else that was nearly 100% ads: the old Computer Shopper magazine. As I recall, they printed just enough editorial material to qualify for the "literature" postal rate rather than the "advertising" rate.
- eduction 4y agoMy memory is that originally business listings were excluded from the white pages, added in later years. Been a while though!