Marketers Express Hope for Sweeps, Even in Wake of AFE "Curtailing"

Circulation Management, March, 2001 by Karlene Lukovitz

WHAT'S LEFT OF AFE American Family Enterprises cut 85 jobs, leaving president Brian Wolfe and 15 core staff members to "evaluate" its remaining business.

That business consists of non-sweeps programs in the test or discussion phase and the maintenance required to continue accepting incoming orders and fulfilling outstanding subscriptions and renewals.

The company also confirmed that the curtailment will not affect prizes previously awarded in the American Family Publishers' sweepstakes, its Chapter 11 reorganization plan, or its settlements of class action and state attorneys' general lawsuits. AFE paid $33 million to settle the class action suits, and an additional $6.9 million to the states.

AFE spokesperson Richard Tauberman maintained that the company is "curtailing its services," not shutting down, although many in the industry believe that that will be the next step.

"Once the sweepstakes wound down, we had a staff that didn't really reflect our needs going forward," Tauberman told CM. "It just wasn't good business to keep 100 people around." Those staffers will not be absorbed into Time Inc.

Taubman confirmed that one program in which AFE has partnered with charities to sell subscriptions, "Magazines with a Cause," is in beta testing. Two mailings were sent out, and two more are scheduled, he reported.

"Once tests are completed, we'll re-evaluate everything," he said.

Tauberman declined to confirm or deny other programs, but consumer marketers report that there has been discussion, if not testing, of a school plan and a program in which magazines serving specific markets or similar demographics would be marketed as a group to target audiences.

Several consumer marketers also told CM that they believe that AFE's non-sweeps efforts have not been successful.

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