IN PART THREE of our mini-look into DIRECT’s first decade of publication, we go back again to 1992, this time taking a gander at the October issue.

* “Battlegrounds of the ’90s” was the headline raging on the cover, as DIRECT reported on two new generals in the credit card battlefield-General Motors Corp. and General Electric Co., that is-and the escalating melee among telephone long-distance carriers looking for customers. Sprint, we related, was devoting half its marketing budget to customer retention.

* ABC-TV was preparing to fill the late- night slot following “Nightline” with “Nitecap,” a talk show hosted by Robin Leach featuring infomercial-style sales. Since Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” currently fills that time slot, we’ll assume Leach is supplementing his rich and famous lifestyle elsewhere.

* Former senior writer Len Egol reported on the gaining popularity of CD-ROM catalogs. Oh, how times change-the word “Internet” wasn’t mentioned once in the entire article.

Next issue, editorial director Ray Schultz will take readers all the way back to DIRECT’s first issue, debuted at the Direct Marketing Association’s 1988 fall conference.

See you there.

AS PART OF DIRECT’s 10th anniversary celebration, over the next four issues we’ll share what was making direct marketing headlines during our first decade of publication. This time out we’re taking the Wayback machine to September 1992. Being an election year, much of the news was political.

* “High Tech Alliances Soar” was the cover story, exploring the trend of firms like Acxiom, Database America, Metromail, Arbitron and MarketPulse teaming with the owners of vast amounts of information.

* Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) introduced the Postal Privacy Protection Act of 1992, a bill requiring all mailings to carry disclaimers identifying where the recipient’s name and address were obtained.

* Female candidates were using the spotlight thrown on the largely white male U.S. Senate by Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings the previous fall as a weapon in direct mail fundraising. EMILY’s List (Early Money Is Like Yeast), a fundraising network for Democratic women running for office, reported that candidates Barbara Boxer in California and Geraldine Ferraro in New York each attracted more than 50,000 contributors. Both referred to the Thomas hearings in their appeals.

* The Directions column noted that a letter writer to The New York Times may have deduced the real reason billionaire Ross Perot ran for president: to build a mailing list.