B-to-B Circulators Deserve Kudos

Circulation Management, April 1, 2003

Given that it sometimes seems like we deliver nothing but bad news in this publication, it is refreshing indeed to bring you the results of our new controlled B-to-B benchmark survey this month.

When I sat down and looked at the numbers, I was quite amazed. Despite rising postage rates and rising costs for almost every traditional B-to-B circulation source - not to mention slashed budgets and staffs - controlled circulators managed to bring the average per-name acquisition cost down by 17 percent, and the average renewal cost down by 9 percent, between 2001 and 2002.

Clearly, these professionals have demonstrated outstanding skill at mastering the Internet and email and using telemarketing effectively and cost-efficiently.

I call these feats pretty impressive, and I would hope that top management at B-to-B publishers are recognizing and rewarding their circulation professionals for this performance, because their companies are obviously benefitting tremendously from the cost reductions achieved.

Other highlights in this issue include a helpful guide to one of today's publishing hot buttons, developing paid Web content; Baird Davis's insightful analysis of the newsstand performance of audited titles in last year's second half; and Updates covering the recent Retail Conference.

On the last front, there was, as expected, a good deal of useful information shared on scan-based trading, the retail display challenges confronting the magazine category, and the changing retail environment.

These discussions drove home just how much of a stumbling block scan-based trading has become for our industry, and how urgently it needs to be addressed. As various executives acknowledged, getting this complicated process in hand is going to take years of testing and retesting, monitoring and intense, ongoing communication with retailers. Let's hope that Charles Levy's experience of shrink levels being brought down to 2 percent or under holds up in other tests and SBT implementation processes, because publishers certainly should not have to bear the burden of high shrink levels. And let's also hope that retailers and others in the distribution channel prove willing to do the fair thing, which is divide shrink costs among the players. If they are, SBT is likely to become a reality much sooner.

While it was hardly a core topic of discussion, I found panelists' references to some of the new technologies being developed for use in stores to be mind-boggling, and more than a little scary. Actually, one of these - radio frequency ID tags that let shoppers move through a checkout as fast as using an EZPass at toll booths - was mentioned in a quote from TDS's Rich Jacobsen in one of last month's feature articles. Rich accurately described this as "Orwellian." And during the conference, CMG's Terry McGraw elaborated on this technology. It turns out that the microchips that will be embedded in every product will enable marketers to follow us home and observe our behavior. "We'll be able to tell when you consume the product and dispose of the product, and at that point send you an email reminder to repurchase the product," McGraw said. What next? Video cams in the shower?

Those of you who have tired of seeing the same headshot on this page for nearly a decade (I'm not a big fan of having my picture taken), take note: I am now truly signing off as editor of CM.

Write to us at cmedit@primediabusiness.com or P.O. Box 4235, Stamford, CT 06907-0235, or call (203) 358-4169.