Colors

White Pages

How It's Used

"Randy Michaels, whom Zell hired as Jacor’s C.E.O., recalled his first meeting with Zell, in 1993. He wanted to acquire a station in Denver that was losing money and could probably be bought cheaply, for perhaps four million dollars. He showed Zell 'a deal book that looked like the Manhattan white pages. He said, "Oh, no! Put it on one piece of paper or you don’t understand it!" He threw the book on the floor.'"

"My initial thought was to write a novel about business, figuring that there are only a few such books around, and business is quite important. Then I met a guy, quite by accident, who gave me an idea. Summer for me is synonymous with playing cricket, and when I came to New York I looked at the White Pages and saw a listing for something called the World Cricket League. When I called, the person who answered said, 'This is the president of the World Cricket League.' He turned out to be a Pakistani entrepreneur who was intent on building a cricket stadium in New York City."

"There's one more thing you'll notice:  This book is even thicker than the last edition.  That's a matter of some soul-searching for a computer-book author.  Of course, a thinner book, or at least a thinner-looking one, would be preferable; plenty of readers are intimidated by a book that dwarfs the Tokyo White Pages."

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