Privacy as a customer service

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, August 1, 1991 by Susan Hovey

Last year's 20th anniversary celebration of Earth Day spurred close to 700,000 environment-conscious consumers to add their names to the New York-based Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service. By opting on to the MPS list, they hope to keep their names off others.

But when one large magazine company found some of its own subscribers on that list, it decided to double-check with them. The magazine sent a letter asking them if they wanted to stop receiving all direct mail, or just what was coming from other companies. Of those who responded, most said they still wanted to receive mailings from the magazine company.

Lest it seem that his company blithely ignores the wishes of consumers on the MPS list, a circulation director for the publisher asked that the company's name not be used.

Ironically, though, the DMA lauds the company's effort. Says Lorna Christie, vice president of ethics and consumer affairs for DMA: "I would applaud them for taking that extra step. They've considered privacy as a customer service issue."

Christie adds that, in fact, DMA encourages its members to double-check with customers if their names come up on MPS. "If L.L. Bean picked up my name from MPS, and then saw that I had purchased something from them only recently, they'd be crazy to just take off my name."

MPS' all-or-nothing limitation on its current file of 1.9 million names underlines the importance of publishers notifying subscribers of their own in-house suppression services. To that end, DMA is planning a campaign to provide publishers with examples of how to go about it-either through follow-up mailings to new subscribers or with a notice in the magazine itself. Two activist-oriented titles are already educating subscribers about list options: The Progressive, for example, sends out a subscriber services handbook that includes a section outlining the magazine's rental policy and offering a toll-free number for subscribers who want to opt off the rental list. And last November, Utne Reader went so far as to publish a partial list of the companies to which it rents its file. (See FOLIO:, February 1991, page 61.)

But these efforts are still the exception for magazine publishers. On the other hand, "catalogers have embraced this," Christie says, noting that some include opt-off notices right on the order forms, while others even place them on the cover itself.

Catalog and magazine publishers, however, breathed a collective sigh of relief when the Connecticut and Rhode Island houses of representatives recently defeated bills that would have required them to provide toll-free numbers or postcards in mailings to enable recipients to opt off their lists.

One company that has long embraced the idea of letting readers know about in-house suppression is the Des Moines, Iowa-based Meredith Corporation. The july issue of Metropolitan Home, for example, devotes one-third of the masthead page to an explanation of Meredith's list rental policy, followed by an address to which subscribers can write to optoff. "Please be specific," the notice reads, "as to whether it is still okay to receive Meredith Corporation offers or whether you want to stop all offers from any company including Meredith."

Clem Sevde, vice president/circulation director for the Meredith Magazine Group, says the company tries to run a notice in each magazine at least twice a year.

"We just think it's good business," he explains. "It's a further extension of the Mail Preference Service. Magazines and catalogs operate quite differently from other direct marketing companies, so there's just not a clean and easy way for the DMA to handle that. it's probably easier for us to offer in-house suppression."

Some industry members say that the practice can actually help lift response. "It's not uncommon," Christie points out. "You're building confidence with your customer."