AT&T Advertising Solutions is the collective d/b/a name of the advertising operations of AT&T Inc. Its best known products consist of directory advertising (yellow pages) and yellow pages on line (yp.com). They also sell a variety of other advertising products which include direct mail, and advertising on mobile devices. It is not a company; rather, it is a structural unit consisting of the directory divisions SBC Communications/AT&T has acquired since 1984. It is responsible for the publication of 1,250 directories, published under the AT&T Real Yellow Pages name. It is headquartered in St. Louis, MO.
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AT&T Real Yellowpages is composed of Business and Residence White Pages, Yellow Pages, a community section, and a coupon section. Directories are distributed annually throughout select areas of the United States. In highly populated areas, AT&T publishes a mini directory with smaller print and advertisements, which is distributed to homes. AT&T (formally SBC, Ameritech, and Bell) boasts itself as the oldest phone book publisher, which led to the Real Yellow Pages campaign. The official name is Now AT&T Advertising Solutions as of November 2008. Today the company delivers leads through Print Yellowpages, Yellowpages.com, and various Search Engine Marketing and even websites.
AT&T Advertising Solutions began in when SBC Communications dropped its Bell Operating Company names altogether, using a unified "SBC" brand. As a result, the yellow pages operations were combined into one unit (retaining the separate companies) took on the "SMART Yellow Pages" brand, retained from Pacific Bell Directory. The following directory publishing companies owned by SBC began doing business as "SBC SMART Yellow Pages":
Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages headquarters were utilized as central headquarters for all SBC Yellow Pages operations in St. Louis, MO at One Bell Center.
In 2004, SBC sold complete control of its joint venture with R. H. Donnelley, DonTech, to R. H. Donnelley. Telephone directories formerly published by SBC now became known as SBC Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley, and R. H. Donnelley's Illinois operations for SBC became known as the R. H. Donnelley Publishing & Advertising of Illinois Partnership. SBC merged Southwestern Bell Advertising, L.P. with Pacific Bell Directory's advertising division, creating SBC Advertising, L.P. As a result, "SMART" is eliminated as a nickname for all of the yellow pages operations, becoming simply SBC Yellow Pages.
In 2005, SBC completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp., and renamed itself AT&T Inc. As a result, SBC Yellow Pages was renamed AT&T Yellow Pages, and the Illinois edition was renamed "AT&T Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley". SBC Advertising, L.P. was renamed AT&T Advertising, L.P. AT&T directory publishing companies began doing business as either AT&T Yellow Pages (in reference to being a directory publisher) or AT&T Directory Operations (in reference to being a unit of AT&T).
As of November 20, 2006, AT&T Yellow Pages is the only directory operation of a Baby Bell to not be spun off (with the exception of Illinois).
On December 29, 2006, AT&T added BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corporation, or "BAPCO" to its roster of directory publishers. As a result, in January 2007, all companies who had been doing business as AT&T Yellow Pages started doing business as AT&T Advertising & Publishing, while the AT&T Yellow Pages name was retained.
On February 26, 2007, however, AT&T announced it would adopt BellSouth's directory branding, the Real Yellow Pages. All yellow pages directories published by AT&T will now be published under the AT&T Real Yellow Pages. As of November 2008 AT&T Advertising & Publishing changed their name to AT&T Advertising Solutions. This is because the company is now more than just a Yellowpages company. AT&T Advertising Solutions delivers leads through Print, Yellowpages.com and popular search engines and websites. The following companies now comprise AT&T Advertising Solutions:
Initially a joint venture, SBC Communications & BellSouth previously operated their own electronic yellow pages telephone directory websites, SMARTpages.com (a subsidiary of Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc.) and RealPages.com (a subsidiary of BAPCO) . Both sites' operations were merged into Yellowpages.com in 2005. As a result of SBC Communications merger with AT&T, the post merger AT&T wholly owned an additional telephone directory website AnyWho.com. AnyWho.com, though owned by AT&T Knowledge Ventures, was never merged into YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC due to stake conflicts with BellSouth. The acquisition of BellSouth by AT&T on December 29, 2006 led to both companies being wholly owned. AnyWho.com is now integrated with Yellowpages.com.
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