Barely six months after repurchasing 51% of its stock from Acxiom, Direct Media put itself on display yesterday during its annual business-to-business co-op. And the new company doesn’t look very different from the old one.
The opening speaker was Bob Foehl, who retired in 1996 and is now devoting half of his time to DMI. Dave Bianchi, who left in 1996, is back as a consultant. And DMI just signed a lease in its own name for its old facility in Greenwich, CT.
One difference is that the firm is less driven toward growth than it was during the Acxiom years. The goal now is to “take it back to where it was four years ago in terms of quality of service,” said founder and CEO Dave Florence.
Another difference is that DMI now has a slightly smaller staff and client base. It has 270 employees, compared with 440 a few years ago. And revenue is down–$30 million a year, compared with $40 million before.
DMI has also slightly altered the course of its online startup, Direct Media.com. The unit, which now has Tom Mariacci as president, will be primarily owned by DMI, and it will remain firmly rooted in the direct marketing world.
“We learned that you can’t separate it from the traditional side,” Florence said.
But the firm remains a player in both the B-to-B and B-to-C worlds. It has roughly 200 B-to-B clients, many of which were here yesterday. And it has a new management team in place (made up of familiar faces): May Katz is chief operating officer and Rick Sarli is chief financial officer. Veterans Max Barkto and Rosemary Montroy will continue to run the list business.
What’s on the drawing board? On the traditional side, DMI is about to launch the Business Mailer’s Alliance, a cooperative database for B-to-B mailers (see story below). DMI is also in talks with Mariacci to take over his alternative media company, Media Research Group.
On the online side, Florence hopes to sell lists online, mostly to small businesses. The lists will be wholesaled from compilers. (Direct Media owns the name Mailing Lists.com.)
Florence also wants to help clients build e-mail lists. Direct Media.com is now helping WinFreeStuff expand into the business-to-business arena.
DMI hopes to exercise its option to buy back the remaining 49% of the stock from Acxiom.
How do employees feel after the convulsions of the past year?
“Morale is good,” Florence said.
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