More about the the Nex-Tech Directory...
The first Rural Telephone phone book was published in 1956 and included only residential listings for Logan, Kansas. Yellow pages were not included until 1957. The yellow page section included eleven pages and the directory was expanded to include 6 towns. Ten years after its first publication, the Rural Telephone phone book included listings for 17 towns and included 32 yellow pages. By 1980, the phone book included local listings for 28 towns and listings for 17 towns not in Rural Telephones exchanges. Thirty-nine yellow pages were included in the 1980 edition. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Rural Telephone phone book continued to expand and by 1993, the last year the phone book was published by an outside contractor, it included local listings for 28 towns, foreign listings for 20 towns and 85 yellow pages. Also around this time, Rural Telephone branched out into the competitive services market and formed its subsidiary company Nex-Tech.
At this time, the decision was made to publish the Rural Telephone phone book in-house to create revenue and keep jobs in northwest Kansas. Creating jobs and keeping revenue in northwest Kansas was only one of the reasons Rural Telephone began publishing the Six Lakes Directory in-house in 1994. Rural Telephone also wanted to create a directory that was easier to use and contained a more complete yellow page section. When the directory was first published in-house in 1994, the title was changed to Six Lakes Directory and the directory featured maps of area lakes in its Leisure Section. The first in-house edition of the Six Lakes Directory featured four different sections to the directory, all in full color. They were the General Information, Government Offices and Schools, Living, and Leisure. Additional features of the first in-house addition included area zip codes on the back cover. To ensure its customers would find the Six Lakes Directory convenient and easy to use, Rural Telephone also included community white page listings at the front of the directory.
Feedback from customers and advertisers led to continued improvements in the following years. In 1996, white knockout advertising was first featured in the yellow pages making the yellow pages even more popular with advertisers. In 1998, four-color yellow pages were introduced. Perhaps the most dramatic changes came in 2002 when the name of the directory was changed to the Nex-Tech Directory. With the name change came a new look for the directory. The Nex-Tech Directory for the first time featured a map and area zip codes on the cover.
Over the years the Nex-Tech Directory has continually changed to meet the needs and requests of its users and advertisers. In 2007, the Spiral bound copies of the book proved to be a much appreciated addition to the Nex-Tech Directory and continues to be distributed to this day. In 2008, the Nex-Tech Directory saw its first dramatic change in years when the overall size of the book was increased from its original size of 6”x9” to a larger 8”x10.25” sized directory. In 2009, another major change to the directory took place with the addition of a photo themed cover and the area zip codes being moved to the inside back cover to help display the photo on the cover better.
As the Nex-Tech Directory has continually changed over the years, one thing has always remained the same. The Nex-Tech Directory is the most complete, accurate and user-friendly directory and is still the preferred directory in the coverage area.