From 1925 to 1964
SEAT, Società anonima Elenchi ufficiali per gli Abbonati al Telefono, was founded on 23 May
1925 with a share capital of 100 thousand lire. The operating facilities were in Turin, in Via Saluzzo 56. Its shareholders included Sip
(65%) and Giani (35%). Umberto Brogli, deputy manager of Sip, was appointed Chairman and Giuseppe
Giani, owner of Giani & C. — former license holder for publication of the State Telephone
Directories and subsequently taken over by SEAT — was appointed Managing Director.
Even back in those
years, although telephone use was still quite limited, SEAT could see that telephone directories
were potentially useful not only as lists of names and numbers, but also and especially, as
effective advertising vehicles.Directory publishing companies provided advertisers with a range of tools to increase their
visibility. With the gradual expansion of the service, telephone directories were split into five
geographical areas, assigned to five licensee companies. Stipel (Società telefonica interregionale
piemontese e lombarda), Telve (Società telefonica delle Venezie), Teti, (Società telefonica
Tirrena) which operated the service in the regions of Liguria, Latium, Tuscany and Sardinia, and
the province of Orvieto, Timo (Società telefonica Italia Meridionale) which covered Emilia Romagna,
Marche, Molise, and part of Umbria and finally, Set (Società esercizi telefonici) that serviced
southern Italy, including Sicily. At the same time, the Azienda di Stato per i servizi telefonici
also provided telephone services: the ASST was assigned the task of handling intercity telephone
traffic and putting together and coordinating license holders.
In 1925, SEAT signed the license specification for publication of telephone directories with
Stipel and began talks with Timo and Set. The first directory published by SEAT in October 1925 was bigger than the previous years'
volumes. It was 384 pages thick and included all the subscribers in the region of Piedmont, except
for the province of Novara. In addition to the Alphabetical, Category and Numerical
classifications, it included a Street Directory where users could find a telephone number by using
the subscriber’s address. In 1927, SEAT took over from Editoriale di Trento in publishing Timo
Directories and acquired the license for a six year term. SEAT would have to wait until 1930 to
acquire the license in the Telve zone and the entire Set zone, including the former "Telefonica
delle Puglie”. In 1930, there was a significant increase in the directories published for Stipel,
which worked in Lombardy and Piedmont, whose local directories were published by SEAT.
The 1930s began with great changes in
the company shareholding structure due to transfers of shares and new acquisitions. In 1933, SEAT sold Set shares to SIP pursuant to the new organisation of the telephone group,
and a new company, Stet, Società Torinese Esercizi Telefonici, was formed. In 1934, SEAT share
certificates were transferred by Sip to Saiat (Società immobiliare attività telefoniche), a
sub-holding of Stet which included the real-estates assets connected to the telephone service in
addition to Scintilla (insurance), SEAT and Seta (Società Esercizi Telefoni
Autostrade).The five-year period from 1935-1939 was affected by the economic crises in Italy which
spilled over into the largest Italian companies and SEAT was no exception. Falling consumer purchases led to a reduced need for advertising in telephone directories
which in turn led to reduced advertising rates in several areas, but losses continued and caused
SEAT to initiate a radical reorganisation of the company, including in relation to the directives
of the new shareholding structure which demanded "all possible economies". In terms of publishing,
SEAT attempted to find ways to reduce the space used: extra attention to page layouts saved a
significant number of pages in each directory and the effects of hikes in the cost of paper were
limited thanks to the care taken in purchasing and publishing decisions.
The biggest event in 1937 was the publication of the directory for Eritrea. The Royal Government of Addis Ababa made a similar request for a national directory. In 1939,
the second edition of the Asmara directory was published and an agreement was signed for
publication of a directory of Addis Ababa. Telephone users in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and other
Italian colonies, Libya, and the Aegean Sea islands were listed in the "General Directory of
Italian Telephones" with the same dignity afforded to the metropolitan territory.
To cope with the economic shortages, SEAT implemented measures to limit the use of raw
materials; this included removal of the Street and Numerical directories, the publication of which is compulsory only
for networks with more than 10,000 subscribers.
With the outbreak of the war, the publishing upsurge that had marked the early years of the
1930s came to an abrupt standstill.
Purchased advertising spaces, especially full-page ads, were dramatically fewer than before. Costs increased drastically and economy was sought in any number of ways. Despite this, SEAT
accomplished major innovations. In the Milan directory, for example, the Street section was renewed
and improved: it introduced information for finding every single street and plaza, indications of
the tram lines and bus routes around the city and which lines pass in their vicinity, and it also
included other important information, such as information related to the main offices of public
interest. By 1942, the war was in full swing, which led to the failure to publish the General
Directory — publication of which was suspended for the entire duration of the war — and the
directories of the fifth zone due to the failure to renew the agreement with Set.
In 1943, the economic situation at the company was severely damaged by the war due to air
raids that battered Turin and caused the destruction of most of the company’s paper supplies. That year, only the alphabetical part of the directories were published on higher orders.
This also led to cancellation of numerous advertising contracts acquired, with the near
comprehensive loss of the related income.
The crisis triggered by the war continued and in April 1944, it was decided to wind up the
company. In view of the general situation of the company, it became nearly impossible for SEAT to
honour its contracts with printers, binders and telephone companies. Directory publication resumed
a short two years after its original suspension, but it had to be completely rebuilt: from the
order books to recovery of clientele that had become disoriented and distrustful due to the dismal
market conditions and the aftermath of the war.
Publication of the directories resumed gradually with the end of the conflict and in the 1947
edition, the
categories were reviewed and inserted into macro groups by similar subject matter and
relationship and, more importantly, there was renewed use of colour in the advertisements. Beginning in 1949, in agreement with SET, new printing presses were used to speed up the
printing of the directories. After this, to further accelerate directory information update times,
Seat planned use of a rotating printing press previously used for printing newspapers. The top of
the page included spaces with references to the directory by category, spaces that would later be
used by SEAT and the telephone companies to print messages to the users.
SEAT also resumed its
process of acquisitions and in 1954, it published the Tetic directories and became the only
telephone directory publisher for the entire country. In ensuing years, developments in publishing came at an ever faster pace: SEAT looked into
regional directories, while it also began to publish the various sections of the directory
-alphabetical, category, numerical and street - in separate volumes for several
localities.Main facts
• 1925
Seat (Società elenchi ufficiali abbonati al telefono) is established.
It publishes Northern Italy telephone directories
• 1951 – 1958
Seat broadens its geographic reach and prints telephone directories also for central and
southern Italy
• 1964
Seat prints directories for SIP (Italian telephone company) and becomes the only
telephone directories publisher in Italy. Seat is 100% held by STET
©2007 SEAT Pagine Gialle P.IVA 03970540963