April 18, 2007

With three phone books in Teller County since 2006, publishing company Echo Pages just opened an office in Woodland Park.

"We felt that, by opening an office, that would make us part of the community," said the company's sales manager, Samantha Applegate.

The Echo Pages office, in the Law Center at 750 E. U.S. Highway 24, is staffed by Applegate and two sales representatives, Nancy Trembly and Duane Landry.

"We go into areas where we think our books will fit," Applegate said. "We had our eye on Woodland Park to start with but the area already had an existing phone book (the Gold Book)."

When the Gold Book folded, Echo Pages, along with MacVan Publishing, sent sales teams into the area.

"Because we do community phone books, we felt we could fit the needs of Teller County," Applegate said.

A third company, Phone Directories, published its telephone book after residents had received the Echo and MacVan books.

In its first publication in 2006, Echo Pages offered free ads to businesses that had lost money when the Gold Book failed to publish.

"We gave them credit in our first phone book, thought that was the right thing to do for the industry," Applegate said. "If they wanted to go up in size from there, then it would cost."

A privately owned company with seven major shareholders, Echo Pages, incorporated in October 2003, has 28 employees in Colorado and 10 in Utah. The company published its first phone books in 2004 in Parker, Castle Rock and the Evergreen-Conifer area.

Today, Echo Pages publishes 13 phone books in the greater Denver area and recently initiated one for the west side of Colorado Springs.

The company's main office is in the Denver Technological Center in Greenwood Village, with satellite offices in Evergreen, Arvada and Woodland Park.

Competing against the large area phone books such as DEX, Echo Pages touts its community-based services.

"The reason I feel like I can sell our book is that, I think after 9/11, people really want a community, want to start bonding again," Applegate said. "US West used to have individual phone books in all of these areas."

Echo Pages, which prints the books in Loveland, is a member of the Greater Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce.

For its next publication in 2008, the company seeks an artist for the cover - last year's cover was a scenic photograph by Dave Burdette of Florissant. Applicants are invited to send their submittals to sapplegate@echopages.com.

For information, call Echo Pages at 719-687-1195.

By Pat Hill

SOURCE: Pikes Peak Courier View