Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
How did a man with a degree in music education end up in the publishing business? In 1983, Layne Snyder went to work for a company called Golden State Directories in California. He didn't intend for the job to turn into a career but he was very successful and helped his company receive 10 national awards. He also expanded the company's market into the Salt Lake Valley, and in 1997, Utah Yellow Pages was founded and opened its first community directory in the area, the Sandy/Draper phone book.
With the success of the Sandy book, Utah Yellow Pages opened directories in the Jordan/Southwest area in 1998, Murray/Midvale in 1999, the Holladay/Cottonwood and the West Valley area books in 2000, and Park City in 2001.
Layne relocated to Utah and became owner of Utah Yellow Pages. He is now finalizing work on the company's seventh book, the Sugarhouse/Foothill area.
There are four different companies distributing metro directories in Utah. All are distributed free to residents and offer different features and benefits. Layne tells me that Utah Yellow Pages' products are more localized and concentrate on smaller geographical areas than the others. That smaller size makes the directories easy to use and easy to keep in cars or briefcases. He stressed that most businesses draw the majority of their customers from within a one-to three-mile radius. As gas prices and traffic congestion increase, people will want to shop even closer to their homes.
The company has recently added an online product that makes each of the directories available on the Internet. It can link to the Web site of every client who advertises in the book and can call up a map showing the business location.
"Your Community At Hand" is the company motto. Lane Snyder and his staff are dedicated to the communities they serve and have the goal of helping customers and businesses find each other quickly and economically.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
