85,000 phone books canceled in Seattle

In the five days since Seattle launched its yellow pages opt-out program, more than 13,000 people have canceled 85,000 phone-book deliveries, according to numbers released Monday morning.

That's lower than the 17,000 residents who've canceled a 2011 Seattle Dex yellow-pages directory through the company's own opt-out system. That cancellation number comes from court records filed in the company's lawsuit to block Seattle's new phone-book law.

Seattle's opt-out number doesn't include households that had already canceled the yellow pages through Catalog Choice, the company contracting with the city to run its opt-out program.

Seattle unveiled its new opt-out registry last Thursday, months after it became the first city in the country to require phone book companies to honor requests of people who no longer want the thick paper directory delivered to their doorstep.

The registry can be found at Seattle's new Stop Phone Books page.

Cancellations of Dex Pages for 2011 must by done by May 16. That's because requests must be made 30 days before a phone book company starts its distribution cycle in Seattle. Dex, the largest phone-book distributor in Seattle, starts its cycle in mid-June.

On the same day Seattle unveiled is registry, Dex One and a phone-book trade group filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against the program. A federal judge rejected that motion on Sunday.

Read that story here: Judge hangs up on phone book industry.

Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. Contact Vanessa Ho at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com, and follow her on Twitter as @vanessaho.