Q&As

Hacienda Home Catalog Celebrates the American Southwest A recent Hacienda Home catalog touts itself with “Western Style… Grown Up.” A tooled leather armchair ($1,898) and a message to shoppers declaring Hacienda Home’s dedication to “bringing the …

Seven former officers and directors of former bankrupt cataloger Spiegel Inc. have settled financial impropriety charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Online ad network, tech provider and search portal LookSmart reported that an increase in pay-per-click revenue on its network led to a smaller loss in third-quarter 2006 compared to last year.

Prism Business Media Holdings, the B-to-B media company whose portfolio includes Direct and Multichannel Merchant magazines, announced it has agreed to buy the stock of Penton Media for $194.2 million.

Online ad firm aQuantive reported a 44% year-over-year increase in profits for third-quarter 2006.

JoS. A. Bank Clothiers reported that total sales grew 13.2% in third-quarter 2006 to $119.5 million from $105.6 million in the same quarter last year.

A Dodge marketing campaign launched yesterday to promote the Nitro mid-size SUV is geared toward reaching men, but eyes potential women drivers too.

New Balances Athletic Shoe, Inc. is kicking off a multi-million dollar partnership with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit education arm behind the Sesame Street series, to sponsor the show and other initiatives.

Reader Al Stanton recently sent in a request for an election-season direct-marketing-and-politics contest. Stanton suggested having folks submit either the most fitting theme song for Congress, or the best tagline to spur voting. (For the song he nominated Cher’s “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves,” and for the tagline he offered “Get service back in Congress: Make IN-cumbents OUT-cumbents.”)

I hear you, brother Al, and I salute both of your efforts. To give the contest even more of a DM-centric feel, I invite readers to submit

Newcastle Brown Ale is going interactive, adding a series of CDs to its 12-packs.