Bulky telephone directories — frequently used as doorstops these days — would seem to be the antithesis of the digital world. But if you happen to own a directories business, don’t toss it in the recycling bin yet.

Sol Trujillo, chief executive of Telstra Corp, said phone books are at the forefront of the Australian telecoms company’s digital advertising strategy. The idea is to get phone book advertisements to digital consumers. For example, mobile phone users could draw on ads once-limited to the phone book to find a restaurant as they walk down the street.

Unlike other telecom companies like Qwest or Verizon, which sold or spun off their phone books, Trujillo said Telstra will hold on to its yellow pages. He hopes to integrate the company’s online, cellular and directory advertising to create more business for each. “That’s going to be the next wave of integration,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The CEO, who used to head U.S. West, said advertisers get more value from phone books than online advertising. He said one advertiser found that its ads on Google generated more than 3,200 click throughs (a measure of popularity of online ads) versus only 72 calls from phone book users. But these callers generated six times more value for the advertiser than the Google ad. “When you’re ready to buy, the yellow pages are where you tend to go.”

Telstra could even get a cut when a sale is generated by an ad on its mobile phones. “Ultimately it may be transactional if you make the reservation when you’re online.”

In the interview, Trujillo talked about plans to take public SouFun.com, China’s top real estate and furnishing Web site, in which Telstra has a controlling stake.

He also discussed his testy relationship with the Australian government. In a sign of how low relations have sunk, when asked about a negative report from the government-owned Australian Broadcasting Corp, the CEO told us to look at “who owns that company.“

(Photo: Reuters)