MONTREAL—Yellow Pages is beginning to phase out the door-to-door delivery of its print directory to certain neighbourhoods and areas across Canada. Instead, the big yellow book will now be available at distribution points in newspaper style street-level boxes and distribution racks in grocery stores and pharmacies across the country. The announcement comes as Yellow Pages continues to transform heavily towards digital media and looks to a more efficient distribution of its print media.

“The print directory side of our business continues to have a solid user base and to fulfill a specific need for the small businesses that use it to market their goods and services,” Caroline Andrews, vice-president and chief publishing officer of Yellow Pages said. “This evolution of our distribution approach is aligned with the transformation of our company as we look to ensure the directory is making it to those who use it, in an efficient and responsible manner that continues to generate quality leads for our print customers.”

The company used existing customer research and trends to identify hyper-localized areas in which distribution rates were lower. The directory will now be available in the identified neighborhoods through distribution point locations only.  Brampton, Mississauga and Oakville will be some of the first areas to notice a change, and Yellow Pages will continue to monitor other areas for the next 12 to 18 months.

Residents who would still like to receive home delivery in an area that is no longer set to receive it can call distribution services at 1 800 268-5637. Similarly residents who would like to remove themselves from the distribution list can call to do that as well.

Yellow Pages is in the midst of transforming into a digital company. More than 50% of its total revenues, or over $450 million on an annualized basis, comes exclusively from digital products.  Some of its digital products include the YP mobile app, YP.ca, Canada411.ca, YP Shopwise and RedFlagDeals.com.  In the coming months a tablet and desktop version of its directories will become available for iPad via the App Store and Android devices via the Google Play store.

The print version of the Yellow Pages directory is distributed once a year—the month varies by Canadian municipality.