New Phone Book Is an Eyesore to Some

Hoisting the 1,700-page telephone directory for several North County communities used to be a test of strength. Now, reading it has become a test of eyesight.

The GTE Directories company says it will save “millions of dollars” by using smaller paper and type in the 10 million directories it will distribute by spring in Southern California.

Aside from saving costs, GTE spokeswoman Laura Volberding says, the directories’ smaller size makes them “more user friendly.”

But not to some who this week picked up the directory, which serves the north Orange County communities of Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Seal Beach and parts of Huntington Beach, as well as Long Beach.

“It gives me a headache,” said 84-year-old Bill Greenberg, who Thursday discussed the new book with friends at his daily senior citizens lunch in Rossmoor. “Even with my glasses, the print is so small I couldn’t read the stuff. I’m trying to put it out of my mind.”

Said 79-year-old Larry Lyle: “It’s even smaller than newspaper print. I’ll have to go to one of my neighbors and have them read it for me.”

Delivery of the company’s books in Orange County will be completed by November. Since they began showing up on North County doorsteps earlier this week, GTE officials said at least 13 local customers have called to complain about its size, which was reduced from 9-by-11 inches to 8-by-10. Volberding said the book’s usual 6-point type was shrunk 12% to fit the smaller pages.

The change was spurred by higher paper prices and the company’s belief that customers prefer a smaller telephone book “they can carry with them and use with one hand,” Volberding said.

“The old book was big and bulky,” Volberding said. “The new book is easier to use. Those who don’t like it have called and we’ve been happy to talk them through that, whether it means suggesting a magnifying glass or whatever.”

That may be what some customers need to make out one Seal Beach eye doctor’s ad in the new book. William Hill said his yellow page display “is a big, fat waste of money,” because a map showing where his office is located is barely legible on the smaller pages. “You don’t have to be a senior citizen to have poor eyesight,” the optometrist said. “I’m concerned about customers not finding us because they don’t want to mess with the book anymore. Or because they can’t find their magnifying glass.”

Rick Hanamoto, a Seal Beach travel agency owner, said he yanked his ad before publication because most of his clients are senior citizens who likely wouldn’t be able to read the new type. (Volberding said advertisers were told of the change in advance but the vast majority kept their ads.)

“I can barely read it myself,” Hanamoto said. “You would think telephone companies would be sensitive to that kind of thing.”

Don’t look for a similar change with the Pacific Bell Directory. That company, which also distributes millions of telephone books throughout Southern California, refuses to reduce its directory size, officials said.

The company uses 7-point type, one point larger than what GTE previously used, and has more than 2,000 pages in some books, Pacific Bell spokeswoman Nancy Swasey said.

Although paper prices are a concern, a complete telephone book face-lift could become costly too, Swasey said.

“The price of paper does fluctuate,” she said. “But our feeling is it’s just the cost of doing business.”

Ironically, GTE’s new Long Beach book has 31 more pages than last year’s bigger model.

“Huh, I didn’t know that,” said GTE spokesman Mike Murray. “They feel about the same, though.”