SOUTHWESTERN BELL SHRINKS PHONE BOOK

Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages (SWBYP) and Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. have received nearly unamimously positive comments about their new "down-sized" telephone directories, which are now being distributed to residential and business customers.

The directory was shrunk to conserve paper, said Don Fisher, marketing specialist and SWBYP spokesman.

"We saved 11,400 pounds of paper in the publication of the Cape Girardeau area directory," said Bill Townsend, a SWBYP spokesman. "That is equivalent to about 100 mature trees."

The new 1996 directory maintains the 10 3/4-inch depth, but is two inches narrower, shrinking from nine to seven inches.

The directory retains its three-column format, but utilizes smaller type to squeeze all the names and advertising in the directory. The new directory is thicker, with a total of almost 500 pages -- 207 residential listings, 191 yellow pages, and 100 pages which include "fingertip facts," a calendar of events, area maps, Southeast Missouri State University sports schedules and a seating diagram for the university's Show Me Center.

Last year's directory included 185 pages of residential listings, 177 yellow pages and 76 other pages, for a total of 438.

The smaller format is something we have done in other areas, said Townsend.

"We've had good comments," said Townsend. "People say it is easier to use. During the first week, we have had only one complaint from the Cape Girardeau area about the type size."

Distribution of 1996 directories started in Cape Girardeau last week. More than 66,000 directories will be distributed to residential, business and government customers.

"Typically, we have more and more advertising each year," said Fisher. "Our intent with the compact size is to save paper, not reduce pages or helpful information. There's nothing missing in the directory."

SWBYP publishes as many as 43 million directory pages every year.

"We didn't want to have to pass the added cost of paper to the our advertisers," said Fisher.

Advertisers costs are the same. A full page ad is a full page ad, regardless of page size, said SWBYP officials.,

Southwestern Bell and SWBYP conduct paper-saving projects each year to recycle old directories.

Outdated directories can be recycled into such products as paper napkins, paper towels, roofing shingles, shoe boxes and other items, she said Linda works, St. Louis-based manager of rpinting and distribution and coordination of Project Redirectory.

Drop-off bins for old directories have been placed in a number of Cape Girardeau County areas and will remain in place through Nov. 13.

In Cape Girardeau, bins are available at all Boatmen's Bank sites; Schnucks Markets at 19 S. Kingshighway and 121 S. Sprigg; the Student Recreation Center at Southeast Missouri State University; the Cape Girardeau Recycling Center and Southwestern Bell Telephone. Jackson drop-off sites are Boatmen's Bank and the city of Jackson vehicle maintenance facility at 416 Florence.

Since Project ReDirectory was started in 1992, more than 40 tons of outdated directories have been recycled, saving 663 mature trees and 128 cubic yards of landfill space. The project is conducted in 40 cities throughout Southwestern Bell's five-state region.