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Old school, still cool
Acting governor Victor B. Hocog, second from left, along with IT&E chief executive officer John Compton, left, chief financial officer Susan Ligeralde, third from left, Yellow Pages Inc. business sales manager Jayr Dominguez, press secretary Ivan A. Blanco, and public information specialist L.J. Castro present the new CNMI Phone Book last Friday. (Jon Perez)
IT&E has already released the CNMI’s 2017 Phone Book after it was introduced to acting governor Victor B. Hocog last Friday at the conference room of the Governor’s Office on Capitol Hill. The phone book is published every year.
IT&E chief executive officer John Compton, chief financial officer Susan Ligeralde, and Yellow Pages Inc. business sales manager Jayr Dominguez presented the new phone book to Hocog, press secretary and representative-elect Ivan A. Blanco, and public information specialist and councilor-elect L.J. Castro.
Publishing and having a phone book in your home or office is still important even in this digital age, Compton said, as it remains a handy tool. “Having a phone book, it is still important even in this year and age. Because people won’t always know how to reach other people.”
“This year is particularly important since there are a lot of new businesses in the CNMI that had signed up for advertisements and so now people will know how to find them,” added Compton.
He said the phone book remains extremely popular in the CNMI. “People always look forward to getting this every year. And if they don’t get it on time, we get complaints about it. That’s why we went ahead of the curve this year.”
IT&E also lessened this year the number of copies they publish from 40,000 to 30,000, while also introducing a digital copy. “In addition to this paper copy, we have a digital copy online and you could download either on Apple Store or Google Play,” said Compton.
A total of 30,000 phone books were published this year. “Over time some people prefer the digital edition. We don’t want to kill more trees.”
Dominguez oversees the advertisements and phone numbers that would be printed on the phone book every year. He starts in February, looking for businesses that want to place an ad, then collects the updated numbers of subscribers around July.
Photos by Mark S. Burke are featured in the new phone book, with his shot of a replica of the traditional meeting place of ancient Chamorros as part of the Kalabera Cave Development Project on the cover.
