Foreign list restrictions stymie U.S. publishers; 1992 is coming, but pan-Europeans lists aren't

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 1991 by Marilyn Much

1992 is coming, but pan-European lists aren't

Given Europe's tight grip on data protection and privacy laws, finding good direct response lists overseas may prove the biggest hurdle U.S. publishers face in preparing for 1992's unified European Economic Community.

By most estimates, there are only about 200 truly pan-European lists, containing a total of 10 million names-most of which are multinational magazine subscribers, prospects and expires, as well as prospects and attendees at training seminars. Although English is usually the common language, these lists may lack uniformity of format, and they may vary according to performance.

These pan-European lists also may not meet the needs of marketers serving vertical markets, such as trade publications. Consequently, U.S. publishers must go to the individual countries to find local lists.

"One of my continual challenges," comments Judy Weiss, director of marketing for New York-based Auerbach Publishers, which publishes computer, engineering and other technical books and journals, "is to find good direct response lists as opposed to compiled lists."

According to Weiss, it is difficult to find English readers abroad who have proven direct response buying patterns, and high-quality lists are few and far between.

The problem in finding good multinational lists stems from the business habits of foreign list owners. For one thing, they are usually more cautious than U.S. list owners about putting their lists on the market. And they generally don't allow second usage, multi-buyer usage, net-name deals, file overlays, database builds and, sometimes, tapes for merge/ purge or personalization, says Cheryl Wieszczyk, vice president of direct marketing and circulation, Institutional Investor Inc., New York.

In addition, foreign list selects are usually limited to country and/or region, home or business address, industry and/or function, and selects by product and/or amount spent. Source or age are rare, Wieszczyk explains.

Overcoming the obstacles

To clear those hurdles, some experts suggest that U.S. publishers seek list swap arrangements with non-traditional partners, since the number of traditional list exchange partners is waning. Weiss of Auerbach, for example, is trying to arrange list swaps with groups of seminar sponsors.

Some publishers have been testing local lists overseas. That means that instead of one publication trading names of its worldwide subscribers with another publication that also has broad-based overseas circulation, publications are arranging swaps with locally circulated magazines.

U.S. publishers can also do their own list research. This means testing foreign segments of lists from U.S.- based publishers, such as Time and the Harvard Business Review, both of which have sizable U.S. and overseas subscriber lists.