Rogue Agents Still At It

Circulation Management, August 1, 2004

Byline: BARBARA LOVE

Unauthorized agents are still selling subs and getting away with it, according to panelists at the Circulation Management Conference & Exposition.

"I was astonished to find out the extent to which people are running around selling subs and getting away with it," said Jill Meyer Vollman, attorney with Frost Brown Todd, a Cincinnati-based law firm. "They are selling on different terms and conditions and attaching all kinds of bells and whistles publishers didn't or never would have agreed to, and somehow getting away with it."

How is this happening? "Simply because they are getting away with it," she said. "They are getting away with it because there is layer upon layer of different people involved, and a number of people in the chain and that makes it very difficult to ever track down how a rogue agent has been selling your title for three years and you never knew about it." Time Inc. has been able to deal with the problem. So, to a lesser extent, has Hearst. But smaller publishers do not have the time and resources to track down the unauthorized agents.