Finally - Good News on Lists

Circulation Management, June 1, 2004

Byline: BARBARA LOVE

A faint glow of health may be returning to the mailing list business.

And that's good news for consumer magazine circulators looking for direct mail sold, direct-to-publisher files, according to Michael Heaney, vice president-sales for The Millard Group Inc.

In 2002, there were not very many launches and publishers cut back on their mailings. As a result, not many new lists came on the market in 2003, and the ones that did appear were not used as extensively as they would have been in the past.

But all of that has improved. For example, Heaney pointed to a 21% spike in new magazine launches in 2003 over 2002. Based on figures available from Sumir Husni, "Mr. Magazines," of the University of Mississippi, the total number of magazines launched in 2003 was 948.

Heaney, who serves as list broker for G J USA, American Express Publishing, Advance and others, gave two examples: Cargo, from Advance, which recently put out a list of 146,631 subscribers; and Lifetime, a Hearst Magazines product, which just brought its list of 412,000 subscribers to market.

In addition, Heaney said interest among consumer magazine publishers to use more direct mail direct-to-publisher lists. "Now we're seeing a return to traditional direct mail volumes, which should result in larger list universes for the markets those magazines are in."

And thirdly, there has been a rise in response rates to direct mail DTP promotions, according to Heaney.

"Response to campaigns going out this spring has been very strong," said Heaney.

The result?

"It suddenly feels good again," he concluded.