The history of White Directory and The Talking Phone Book® is one deeply rooted in the "American Dream", and the vision of one man Wilbur Lewis. Sadly, in October, 2002 White Directory lost its beloved founder.

White Directory began in 1968 with the "end of an era" in Buffalo, New York. It was then that the New York Telephone made the decision to replace their Yellow Page Sales Agents of over 30 years in upstate New York, to the Reuben H. Donnelley Corp, with the L.M. Berry Company.

Wilbur D. Lewis, a former Sales Account Executive with Donnelley, brought together a group of his old fellow employees to present the idea of introducing an independent yellow pages to the Buffalo area. Thus, a new publishing firm, White Directory Publishers, Inc. was formed and Will Lewis was elected its first President.

It was truly a "gutsy" move because at the time there were only about a dozen independent publishers in the entire country. The telephone company was still the only place to get telephone service, to buy a telephone or have one repaired, the only way to make a long distance call, and the only ones to have pay phones. Cellular phones were still a thing of the future. There were many who believed the new independent would never "get off the ground."

The young firm knew that they had one huge scoping advantage. The telephone company was publishing six separate directories to cover Buffalo and its five major suburban areas, and they also knew that businesspeople were tired of paying high rates for six ads in a natural market that called for only one. White Directory announced that they would publish one yellow page directory to serve all of Erie County, and that they would charge only one-third of what the telephone company charged for advertising in Buffalo alone.

Innovation and leadership in directory publishing has been evident at White Directory since the very first issue. In that first issue many features were included that were "something new" to our directory users. Detailed emergency numbers, zip codes by streets, seating diagrams for area theatres and sports arenas, major league and collegiate sports schedules, a calendar with the major holidays, and more were included. The combination of the scoping and features proved to be popular with users and advertisers alike. White Directory began to enjoy a steadily growing position in the marketplace.

White Directory included color in Buffalo, first by printing red to highlight the advertising, and then progressed to four-color ads. Soon after, full-color was introduced, allowing the publisher to create stunning effects for its advertisers.

In 1988, for the twentieth anniversary edition, significant changes were made to the directory. A complete business and residential alphabetical section was added to the directory which included the printing of a zip code with each listed address, something that the utility company had not yet done. Next our popular audio text system, which allows the public to call anytime for recorded information, was added along with the name on the cover "The Talking Phone Book®". A whole new era of success began.

Rewriting the Book

Innovations now considered commonplace in many other phone books, such as printing mini-books, zip codes in the yellow pages, money-saving coupons, "talking ads", "Smart Tips", numerous specialty guides and feature pages too numerous to mention, have made The Talking Phone Book® the directory of choice.

In the mid-nineties White Directory took a giant step into the future with the introduction of a fully functional electronic version of The Talking Phone Book® on the Internet. We believe this to be the first electronic telephone book anywhere to include such features as Java animation, Real Audio, audio text information and be fully anchored to a printed directory, to facilitate accessibility and general use.

In early 2002, Buffalotalks.com was launched with an all new look and improved content and functionality. A new search mechanism, Max Search, was created to provide users with an easy-to-use, yet comprehensive search interface which enabled them to find virtually anything without leaving the site. Traffic has increased every year since, and improvements are ongoing.

Later that same year, the Company took another significant move to push the success of its directories into the 21^st century. White Directory made its largest directories free on CD-ROM or via the Internet. With this addition, The Talking Phone Book® was now available to users wherever, whenever, and however they preferred. The Company also made this product searchable and downloadable from any web browser by accessing talkingphonebook.com. With the introduction of this new "digital" Talking Phone Book, the Company was now able to gain usage in large chunks, by offering the CD-ROM free to large businesses, schools and organizations.

The following year, talkingphonebook.com took yet another giant step. The site was redone in January, incorporating the Max Search interface and many of the successful content additions previously found only on buffalotalks.com. After first visiting the corporate site, users are taken to the Web portal for their particular area by entering their ZIP code. The ZIP code serves to localize all content, from search results to movie times.

The Company's innovation has resulted in the accumulation of countless industry awards, including recognition within the Association of Directory Publishers as "Publisher of the Year" in 1989, 1994 and 1998.

Richard Lewis, White Directory's President, was recognized nationally by the Association of Directory Publishers with its "Lifetime Achievement Outstanding Service Award" in honor of his tireless efforts spearheading national legislation that leveled the playing field for independent publishers in obtaining listing information. Rick has been a driving force in opening the road for competition in the directory publishing industry.

Although the company has grown steadily over the years, and changed in many ways, our philosophy of doing everything possible the serve customer need remains unchanged. We have built a loyal customer base by providing quality directories.

The success of White Directory is in our people. It is our management philosophy to hire good people and support them in doing whatever job they do best. Management is committed to providing a friendly, supportive and challenging work environment. Pleasant working conditions, a progressive benefits package and opportunities for advancement creates a spirit of enthusiasm that provides White Directory with a definite competitive edge.

Expansion

In 1986, White Directory Publishers, Inc. introduced a second directory in the Western New York area, the Niagara Falls Area Telephone Directory. In addition to finding a scoping advantage and loading the book with features, for the first time a complete business & residential alphabetical white page section was included, and the book became popular very quickly. A similar directory was scheduled for the following year to serve the Lockport, New York area. Coupled with the previously discussed enhancements to the Buffalo directory advertisers have learned that they can successfully reach the entire Erie and Niagara county marketplace for a fraction of what they would spend with the utility company. Two years later, they added the Batavia Area directory, in Genesee County. Finally, in 1999 they purchased ITD Publishers, Inc. and added four directories, The Central Area, The Lake Shore Area along with Southern Tier Area and the McKean-Potter Area.

1987 also saw the formation of White Directory of Pennsylvania, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary, headquartered in Erie, Pennsylvania. The Erie Corporation set the tone for all of the subsidiaries to follow by housing a first class team of sales professionals, backed up by credit and clerical support people. All other services such as accounting, processing and production are purchased through the "parent company" in Buffalo. The first Erie directory published was the 1988 edition, which has gone on to be a successful "directory of choice" with Erie residents. Other directories originating from the Erie group are the Jamestown-Warren directory, which began in 1990, and the Meadville book in 1992.

An international flair was added in 1993 with the formation of White Directory of Canada. Located in St. Catharines, Ontario, many differences existed in the Niagara Falls, Ontario and St. Catharines directories. Instead of the familiar Talking Phone Book name and the famous walking fingers logo which were displayed on all of our U.S. publications, we found both had been trademarked by Bell Canada, and were not available to us. The directories, although they carried all of the US features, were marketed under the name Phone Directories Canada. In 1999, the directories were sold to a Canadian firm.

Vigorous new expansion then began with the formation of White Directory of Florida, Inc. in 1994, and the opening of an office in Pensacola. The Florida response was overwhelming. Additional offices have been opened in Melbourne, Tallahassee and Jacksonville, with directories published in Pensacola, Ft. Walton, Gulf Breeze, Destin, Cocoa, Bay County, Melbourne, Tallahassee, Indian River County, Fernandina Beach, Jacksonville Beach and Jacksonville. Late in 2003, the company acquired another independent, Lambert Publishing, and added two Alabama directories in Mobile and Baldwin County.

Shortly after came the birth of White Directory of Carolina, Inc. and the Greensboro Talking Phone Book, the first venture into North Carolina. In 1996, an office was added in Cary and eventually in Fayetteville and Wilmington with Talking Phone Books in Greensboro, Burlington, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Chapel Hill-Durham, Greenville, Fayetteville, Lumberton, Wilmington, Jacksonville and in 2003, the acquisition of Rocky Mount, from Tarheel Publishing. Meanwhile, in 1998, the first office was opened in South Carolina, in Columbia. Since then, offices have also been opened in Charleston and Greenville, with directories published in Columbia, Camden, Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg, Charleston, Florence and Augusta-Aiken which crosses the border into Georgia.

In January of 2003, the company acquired an independent in Suffolk, Virginia, Command Affiliates and thus White Directory of Virginia LLC was created. From its office in Newport News, it now publishes directories in Suffolk, Williamsburg, South Hampton Roads, Peninsula, Smithfield-Franklin and Gloucester.

White Joins Hearst Corp

September 30, 2004 it was announced that White Directory Publishers, Inc., and its subsidiaries had been purchased by Hearst Corp., a deal that would secure White Directory's future and give it the ability to continue to compete in a changing industry.

The Hearst Corporation is one of the largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests include magazines, newspapers and business publications, cable networks, television and radio broadcasting, Internet businesses, television production and distribution, newspaper features and distribution, and real estate. Among their holdings is another independent yellow page publisher in Texas, Associated Directory Co. of Texas.

The day to day management of White will stay as it has been, with Rick Lewis at the helm, as President. As always, Mark Davis and Phil Corwin will back him up, as Vice-Presidents, overseeing the operating and financial ends of the business.

Victor Ganzi, the President of Hearst said of the purchase "Over the past 36 years, the Lewis family and their colleagues at White Directory, have built one of the premier companies in the independent yellow page publishing industry. We look forward to their building on the already impressive record of growth and quality service to their customers".

We are now known as White Directory Publishers a Division of Hearst Holdings, Inc., with subsidiaries in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas, and are a part of Hearst's Newspaper Division. The future is more than bright. Since the alliance with Hearst, in addition to accepting the responsibility for the 11 directories from Associated in Texas, we have added directories in Albany and Saratoga/Glens Falls, New York, Bennington, VT./Hoosick Falls, NY, Hornell/Bath/Dansville, NY, Savannah-Hilton Head and Brunswick/Sea Island, Georgia, Lowell, Massachusetts, Laconia New Hampshire. We've also acquired MEGA Publishing, Inc. with directories in Gainesville, Ocala and Lake City, Florida.

From the original 15 employees who produced one directory, to the 872 employees who currently produce 76 directories in thirteen states, White Directory will continue along the trail blazed by our founder, Wilbur D. Lewis, 38 years ago. We are committed to providing each market with the most comprehensive directory products available for both our users and our advertisers.