Round about this time every year a pile of Yellow Pages directories appears in the stair. Almost no-one picks one up, although I always take one. They lie there for a few weeks until some busybody like me decides that their hour has come and consigns them to the re-cycling bin.

Putting the new one in its place I noticed that it was somewhat thinner than last years. Indeed it is 220 pages thinner. Now one might surmise that this is an effect of the recession, that 220 pages worth of businesses have gone to the wall in the Edinburgh area over the last twelve months.

But although Zinc & Zinc Alloy Products, Consultant Actuaries and Quad Bikes & All Terrain Vehicles have bitten the dust the explanation seems to lie in a decrease in the size and weight of the font used. Entries which were difficult to read last year are now verging on the impossible for those with less than 20/20 vision.

I think Yellow Pages are shooting themselves in the foot with this move. It is already much more convenient to do a quick Google rather than plough through their directory. If in addition you can't actually read the damn thing it must surely go bust.