I can't say for sure if newspapers and yellow pages are going extinct, but I found this blog with a simialr article title on the bizwiki.com/blog, and I've found myself asking the same question just last week when i received not 1 but 2 copies of this 3 inch booster chair that my daughter uses at the dinner table.
The Yellow Pages is wise to begin offering websites instead of relying on their printed business directory since so many business owners are beginning to realize that consumers use the yellow pages for boosters chairs and the internet to find and research businesses. Local search is even making this easier for people like me to get a phone number and research more information about a company online. I stand to get more information this way, than from a 2"x2" thumbnail ad in the phone book.
Yet, does a company that specializes in business directory publications really understand web design and ecommerce? Many of our client's are coming off relationships with yellow pages after leasing - never to own - a templated website, and instead looking for professional web design services.
I agree with the bizwiki article that an extinction may not happen anytime soon. Especially for certain business service types that people like to cold call for pricing. But, so many other businesses would be better served investing in online advertising than in a small thumbnail ad lined up next to all of their competitors in a phone book. Restaurants are a perfect example. I believe their industry has been very slow to move online. I could only guess at how much a full page ad large enough to display a menu costs in the phone book. And, what if they wanted to make a change to their menu, adding/removing a special or an item altogether? It's not like they can reprint a revision to the phone book in a matter of minutes the way they can revise and update a website.
However, I do disagree with bizwiki about newspapers being "here to stay." NPR recently released a two-part series, Imagining A City Without Its Daily Newspaper that focuses on financial hardships of many local newspapers around the nation. Communites indeed face the risk of losing their identity if their local newspaper goes out of business. That's one reason why I am so thrilled about a website we recently launched called Bryant Daily. This online publication embraces the real time reporting aspects of the internet and focuses solely on sports and news from Bryant, Arkansas.
Perhaps many of the large well-established print papers will remain in circulation, but many newspapers around the country are shutting their doors and closing shop. Reality may actually be somewhere in the middle.