New Seattle Ordinance Could Cost Yellow Pages Industry Millions, reveals Simba report

Nov. 3, 2010 - PRLog -- The yellow pages industry is facing its toughest environmental challenge yet with the passage of the Seattle Ordinance requiring fees for licensing and advance recovery per-book and per-ton. According to Simba Information’s new report Going Green: Environmental Challenges in the Yellow Pages Industry 2010, the entire environmental issue will get even tougher as the yellow pages industry and the green movement collide in the courtroom.

After fourteen drafts, the final ordinance requires publishers to pay an annual $100 licensing fee, as well as $0.14 per book and $148 per ton in advance recovery fees. If this model is adopted mainstream, cities such as Dallas, Texas, with a distribution of over six million, will see total fees amounting to nearly $900,000 every year.

“Seattle’s tough new ordinance adds more than half a million dollars a year in expenses to three of the industry’s biggest billionaire publishers—AT&T, SuperMedia and Yellowbook—and they are not expected to accept the bill quietly, especially since the ordinance could spread to other communities as a model,” said David Goddard, senior analyst for Simba’s Yellow Pages Group and lead author of the study.
“Advance recovery fees would total more than $10 million if this type of ordinance is adopted by just 20 of the largest markets around the country.”

The ordinance is an effort to reduce municipal waste as more print distribution services move to a cheaper online format. However, the print version, which experiences more usage, will still be distributed to businesses, schools and community centers.

“Seattle has set up a model where the producer, rather than the community, pays for the cost of recycling the product,” said Goddard. “That model must be attractive to political leaders looking to cut expenses, and the environment is always a popular issue.”

Going Green: Environmental Challenges in the Yellow Pages Industry 2010 looks at the history of the yellow pages environmental movement, the reaction by all sides, measures taken by industry trade groups, industry forecast figures and comprehensive profiles of leading yellow pages publishers with the spotlight on their environmental efforts. It is available at: http://www.simbainformation.com/redirect.asp?progid=79884....

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Simba Information is widely recognized as the leading authority for market intelligence in the media and publishing industry as its extensive information network delivers top quality, independent perspective on the people, events and alliances shaping the industry. Simba provides consulting and reports that provide key decision-makers at more than 15,000 client companies around the globe with timely analysis, exclusive statistics and proprietary industry forecasts. For more information, please visit www.simbainformation.com.

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