Original URL: http://www.azstarnet.com/star/Thu/30918BILINGUALPHONEBOOK2fms.html

1st bilingual Yellow Pages going to Tucson customers
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
September 18, 2003
By Mary Vandeveire

The first-ever bilingual Tucson Metro Yellow Pages are going out to more than 580,000 area residents and businesses who are customers of Qwest
Communications.

The 2003/2004 QwestDex phone book includes business directories in English and Spanish. The pages of the English-language section are the usual yellow. The Spanish-language section pages are orange, or mango.

Tucson is the first Arizona community to get the bilingual directories, said Paul Scotti, spokesman for Dex Media. The Phoenix metropolitan area is slated to get its bilingual directory in March and smaller directories for three areas of Greater Phoenix are due this month.

"We've looked at the markets we're in and several have high Hispanic populations," Scotti said. "It's a service to customers that may want to look at their
Yellow Pages in a different language, and it's also a benefit to advertisers to reach the Hispanic community."

The inclusion of a Spanish-language section provides an opportunity for businesses, said Fred Orozco, president and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce.

"It tells the Spanish-speaking consumers that there's businesses out there that want their business. That means a lot."

Seven Arizona communities are getting the directories.

Nogales, home to a good portion of Spanish-speakers, is not on the schedule for a bilingual directory, Scotti said.

"We're always evaluating the markets that have a high concentration of Hispanic population," Scotti said. "Certainly, Nogales would be considered possibly for one of those, but right now there's no time frame for any other bilingual directories beyond the first 16 we've announced."

The company's first bilingual directory came out in April in Pueblo, Colo. A second followed this summer in Taos, N.M.. A bilingual directory is slated to
come out in El Paso this month, and another six will be delivered in communities in New Mexico and Colorado over the next year.

Qwest, the dominant local phone service provider in Arizona, serves 14 states in the West and the Midwest. The Denver-based company completed its sale of QwestDex, its directory services, Sept. 9 to Dex Media. Dex Media is continuing to use the QwestDex brand and has an agreement to be the publisher for Qwest for 50 years.

* Contact reporter Mary Vandeveire at 573-4195 or mev@azstarnet.com.