The biggest blackout in North American history meant an unexpected three-day weekend for many direct marketing businesses.
Numerous New York City-based companies — including the Direct Marketing Association, DoubleClick and Direct magazine’s main editorial offices — stayed closed on Friday, following Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s advice for non-essential business personnel not to commute to work.
Because of disrupted phone lines, many companies a Direct reporter calling from outside the New York area tried to contact on Friday — including numerous businesses in Manhattan and the Detroit area — could not be reached. The Canadian Direct Marketing Association could also not be reached for comment.
When the power went out, personnel in Harte-Hanks’ New York office used cell phones to call the company’s San Antonio office to find out which locations across the country still had power, said Chet Dalzell, director of public relations. An e-mail was quickly sent out updating employees of the New York office’s status.
Dalzell — who was out grabbing a coffee at a nearby Starbucks when the blackout began — went back upstairs to Harte-Hanks 14th floor offices, where employees networked to make sure out-of-town commuters had a Manhattan resident to stay with, should they be unable to make it home. “I put up a New Jersey co-worker last night,” he said.
While none of Harte-Hanks’ 20 New York-based employees got stuck in elevators or their office building, several did get stranded at a meeting on the 36th floor of the Helmsley Palace Hotel, he noted.
For some businesses though, business was almost “as usual” on Friday.
Kathy Duggan-Josephs, president of Ridgefield, CT-based D-J Associates said her company had “no horror stories” to report.
Power returned to Ridgefield about 10:30 p.m. Thursday evening, she said, noting about 90% of the staff now had power returned to their homes.
Because the outage occurred so late in the business day and was so widely publicized, no clients called in a panic, Duggan-Josephs added, noting she was still waiting for power to come back on at her house.
Colleen Malc, senior client management director for ClientLogic Specialists Marketing Services, was at a client meeting in Manhattan when the outage occurred. “It took four and half hours to hours to get back to New Jersey, “she said by e-mail. “It wasn’t fun.”
ClientLogic’s power came back on around 7 a.m. on Friday, said Lon Mandel, marketing services officer. Other than sporadic inbound phone service, the Weehawken, NJ company experienced no technology problems. When the blackout began, he said, servers were brought down and backed up.
“After September 11, we kind of trained for this sort of situation,” he said.
James DiFrangia, president of the Northeast Ohio Direct Marketing Association, said on Friday many of NODMA’s member companies in Cleveland weren’t likely up and running, as power hadn’t been restored to the downtown area yet.
DiFrangia, a consultant who works from a home office in the Cleveland area, was on a golf course with a client when the blackout occurred. His power came back on around 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
MeritDirect’s power in White Plains, NY was restored at about 1:15 a.m. Friday morning, said Paulette J. Schlotman, senior vice president.
“When the black-out occurred, our immediate concern was our servers,” said Schlotman by e-mail. “Thankfully nothing was lost, as our back-up system performed splendidly. We were without e-mail overnight, but everything including our phone system was up and in working order at the start of the business day.”
Many of the list company’s employees were still without power at their homes, including several in New Rochelle, NY. “But we’re back up and running,” said Schlotman. “Resilient New Yorkers that we are, we’re survivors of the Blackout of 2003.”
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