Yellow Book Delivers on Promise of a Manhattan Yellow Pages to Shout About.

Business Editors

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2000

At 6.2 lbs, Nearly 3 inches Thick, and over 2000 Pages, the New Manhattan Yellow Book Redefines Role of the Yellow Pages, Transforming

Medium into Resource-laden Consumer Buying Guide

Not since Steve Martin exclaimed "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!" in the movie The Jerk, has the arrival of a new yellow pages directory been so eagerly greeted. Yellow Book USA, publisher of the new Manhattan Yellow Book, has been inundated with phone calls, letters, and business reply cards that herald the value-added features of Yellow Book's first Manhattan directory. The directory was hand-delivered by the US Postal Service to every home and business in Manhattan - the country's largest yellow pages market.

The New Manhattan Yellow Book offers a number of value added features that are staples in Yellow Book directories across the country. Many of these offerings cannot be found in the utility company's competing directories. Differentiators include:

          A cross street locator for all listings
        Fold out Manhattan map
        Restaurant menu section
        A special government listings section
        Community and tourist information

In addition to numerous requests for additional copies and for advertising information, there has been a tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm from both advertisers and consumers. Consumers frequently point-out that the directory's `cross street locator' feature is "smart!" and "practical," that the fold-out map is "excellent," and that the restaurant menu section offers tremendous "convenience" and "value-added service." On the business advertising front, businesses are already reporting receiving significant traffic/calls as a result of advertising in the directory.

People are reacting because we've shaken up the Manhattan telephone directory market," said company CEO, Joe Walsh. " Last March we announced we'd come to Manhattan and produce a better product at less cost to advertisers and with greater utility to consumers - and we have done just that. Advertiser and consumer response to the directory, which showcases our unique `cross street locator' feature along with larger print and restaurant menus, has been staggering. And small businesses that had been priced out of Bell Atlantic's directories are now in the Manhattan Yellow Book."

Stated simply, Yellow Book's competitive advertising rates are priced in line with what it costs to produce and hand-deliver this first class directory--with no fat profit margin like that of the phone company's monopolistic approach. The expansion of the market represents an important value proposition to the consumer, who now enjoys greater choice among big and small service providers alike. Usage of the Manhattan Yellow Book will also be stimulated through after-market advertising.

"A phone book in itself is not too exciting," said Yellow Book's Manhattan Sales Manager, Bob Cusick. "But if you take a telephone directory and jam-pack it full of information that's pertinent to everyday life in Manhattan--the book is transformed from a directory to a consumer resource and buying guide. That's what Yellow Book has done, and that's why people are getting such a charge out of it," said Cusick. "These additional features also give our advertisers more bang for their buck."

One million directories have been distributed to homes and businesses, and are also available on-line at yellowbook.com. Yellow Book has combined consumer yellow pages, business-to-business yellow pages and comprehensive white pages into one complete 2,050-page directory for Manhattan.

Yellow Book USA, the fifth largest directory publisher in the nation, was established in 1930 and publishes over 300 yellow pages in 19 states, including community directories, wide-area directories, county directories, city directories, a Business-to-Business directory and college and university directories. Recently Yellow Book USA has made a number of strategic acquisitions including Sprint Publishing's Midwest Operations, Dixie Directory Company, Inc., Yellow Page One, Inc., Directory Publishers, Inc., Southern Directory Company and R.H. Donnelley's Proprietary Operations. In August 1999, Yellow Book USA was acquired by British Telecommunications plc, forming a nearly $1 Billion multi-continent yellow pages organization. In March 1999, the company first entered the $100 million Manhattan yellow pages marketplace to end Bell Atlantic's yellow pages monopoly with affordable pricing and product innovation.