Database.com

Circulation Management, Nov, 1999

For magazine marketers and circulators, the Internet future is so bright they are going to have to wear shades.

HELLO, AND WELCOME to the final installment in our three part series on magazines and database marketing. As I mentioned before, we here at Folio: and CM are firm believers in the power of the database, and we recognize that the technology is becoming more and more crucial to publishers' efforts to increase the lifetime value of their customers. That's why we launched this educational series, and based on the feedback we've received from the first two installments, this is obviously information that you want and require.

With that in mind, I've no doubt that all of you will find this issue--focusing on how you can use the Internet and World Wide Web to increase your renewals and response rates--to be of particular relevance as we head into the new millennium.

Let's face it, the past several months have not been easy times for magazine circulators and marketers, what with government and consumer groups voicing renewed privacy concerns and the furor over stamp sheets.

However, I'm confident that after you've read this issue of "The Power of The Database", you'll come away more optimistic than ever about what the future holds for our industry. Take e-mail for instance: already, a number of publishers are using this technology to interact with their customers in ways never before possible. Why, it was just a few years ago that we marveled at the new inkjet technologies that allowed some basic customization of direct mail pieces. Now, however, using e-mail, we can talk to our subscribers as true individuals. Think of the possibilities: By linking their online addresses to the information we already have in our databases, parenting titles, for instance, can mention the kids by name, a boating magazine might congratulate a reader on that new 40-footer ("and by the way, wouldn't this be a great time to check out our special supplement on how to purchase insurance"). Meanwhile, sports weeklies could frame their pitches in terms of readers' home teams ("For the inside scoop on--i nsert team here--don't miss a single issue of..."). I think you get the idea--the levels of customization will be limited only by your imagination and what your readers tell you they are comfortable with.

And that's just part of the equation. The Internet is not just a new way to talk to your customers, it is, perhaps more importantly, a way for them to talk back to you. While we'll always need the kind of high-quality overlay data afforded by a good service provider, a number of magazines are beginning to use their Web sites to collect the kind of reader information that is prone to fall through the cracks. That is, now publishers have the ability to ask their readers to tell them directly about their favorite fashions, significant events in their lives, the ways in which they spend their leisure time, and on and on.

Again, all of this promises to give magazine executives--publishers, circulators, marketers--new ways to get to know their readers better. And that, in the end, should mean better magazines that have the ability to touch reader's lives more intimately, guaranteeing the kind of affinity we all depend on. All of sudden, the future seems a lot brighter, doesn't it?

Roberta Thomas

Group Publisher

Folio:, CM