Perhaps my headline is overly dramatic but I couldn’t resist the play on the famous New York Post Headline that read, “Ford to New York: Drop Dead” when the then President refused to bailout the Big Apple.
However, according to this article, Seattle appears to be the first city in the nation to pass a law allowing residents to drop out of Yellow Pages distribution. This prompted the publisher’s lawsuit claiming the law violated its First Amendment rights. The Judge has denied the publisher a preliminary injunction but has yet to rule on the underlying lawsuit.
Bye Bye Yellow Pages?
However, in less than a week, 14,000 Seattle residences have registered on the website to opt out of receiving the Yellow Pages. Should this trend take flight, how relevant will the Yellow pages remain to lawyers spending thousands to get a listing? Hopefully, at the very least this will give attorneys some ammunition to negotiate on price.