July 18, 2006

A SLOWDOWN IN THE DM JOB MARKET was reported by Bernhart Associates Executive Search. Its survey of hiring practices noted that only 66% of respondents plan to add staff this summer, down from 72% in the spring and 80% last fall. But fewer layoffs are anticipated. Only two companies out of the 100-plus polled said they’ll reduce head count during the next three months, a record low for the 5-year-old survey. Bernhart also found a shift in the types of personnel being sought. Data analysts and sales reps led the growth in previous reports, but this time there was a spike in demand for candidates with Internet-related skills, particularly Web designers and graphic artists. During the week of July 10 some 118 companies were queried by e-mail, including agencies, suppliers and end users.

July 13

REP. JOHN T. DOOLITTLE (R-CA) introduced legislation that would allow consumers to block politically oriented phone calls. His bill, HR 5325, would create a new category in the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry that would enable a person to choose whether to opt out of political calls as well as business-related ones. When the registry was created in 2003 it exempted political and charitable calls. The bill would treat all political calls the same whether they originated from members of Congress, candidates running for local office or independent organizations.

July 10

CHOICEPOINT INC. plans to sell DM unit ChoicePoint Precision Marketing as part of a larger corporate restructuring plan. Other businesses also will be sold as the firm transitions from a

June 16, 2006

HORMEL FOODS CORP., the maker of Spam, agreed to a lawsuit settlement that would allow NetBop Technologies, a small Welsh technology firm, to use the word

June 1, 2006

THE INTERPUBLIC GROUP, affirming the importance of direct marketing, announced it will combine its Draft and FCB units to create the Draft FCB Group. Howard Draft, the DM agency’s head, was named chairman/CEO of the new entity. Steve Blamer, former CEO of general ad shop FCB, will leave Interpublic after a transitional period. Interpublic acknowledged that some client conflicts may result, but said that management will stress the merger’s benefits. According to Draft, the combined firm will have

May 11, 2006

KODAK agreed to pay more than $26,000 to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that e-mails sent by its photo-sharing unit to 2 million consumers violated the federal Can Spam Act. The messages reportedly failed to include an opt-out mechanism or instructions telling customers they had the right to opt out of future mailings. Liz Scanlon, a spokeswoman for Kodak’s Imaging Network, blamed the incident on a

April 17, 2006

THINK PARTNERSHIP, a provider of online and offline marketing and ad services, signed a letter of intent to acquire IceRocket, a blog-search engine founded by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Terms were not disclosed. IceRocket CEO Blake Rhodes will retain his post after the deal is complete. Think plans to combine IceRocket’s blog-search capabilities with the ad-serving platforms operated by Litmus Media, which Think bought in early April for about $13 million in cash and stock.

April 14

THE DIRECT MARKETING EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION will honor Lee Epstein with its Lifetime Achievement Award. The presentation will be made at DMEF’s annual dinner June 20, during DM Days New York. Epstein was a founder and chairman of DMDNY until it was sold to the Direct Marketing Association in 2003. From 1980 on, DMDNY contributed more then $3 million to regional colleges and universities. During this time he was president and founder of Mailmen Inc., a Hauppauge, NY volume lettershop.

April 6

The FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION tightened rules governing the sending of unsolicited faxes as spelled out in the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005. Specifically, the FCC said fax advertising could only be sent to parties with whom the sender has an established business relationship. Even if they have such a relationship, senders of fax ads must obtain the fax number directly from recipients or otherwise ensure that they voluntarily agreed to make the number available for public distribution. The FCC also is requiring fax ads to contain information on the first page identifying the sender and its contact information, including a way to opt out of the fax program. Senders have no more than 30 days to comply, and small businesses and nonprofits are not exempt. The amended rules take effect in June.

Feb. 7, 2006

The Talbots Inc. said it will acquire cataloger and retailer The J. Jill Group Inc. for $517 million in cash, beating out rival suitor Liz Claiborne Inc. Both Talbots and J. Jill have a strong presence in the women’s apparel arena. J. Jill brings to Talbots a file of 1.8 million last-12-month buyers, 813,000 J. Jill credit cardholders and more than 1.2 million e-mail addresses, according to papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During 2005’s third quarter, J. Jill posted sales of $103 million, up from $94.9 million a year earlier. But the company’s net loss widened slightly, from $2.66 million to $2.69 million.

Jan. 12, 2006

WILLIAMS-SONOMA INC. said it will close its Hold Everything unit by the end of the year and fold it into its other brands. The announcement came as the retailer posted a 12% increase in net revenue to $868.7 million for the eight-week holiday period that ended last Dec. 25, compared with the same span in 2004. Contributing to the increase was a 16.4% jump in direct marketing revenue to $316.7 million, and a 4.5% rise in comparable store sales. Hold Everything, a marketer of storage and other home products, is comprised of 11 retail stores and a DM unit that reportedly mails more than 27 million catalogs a year. Williams-Sonoma expects to incur a charge between $10 million and $12 million for lease-termination costs for the Hold Everything stores, employee severance, write-off of the brand’s Web site expenses and outlays for inventory impairment.

Jan. 9

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT apparently believes the University of Texas was within its rights to block unsolicited e-mail coming into its system. By declining to accept a challenge, the high court let stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that the university did not violate the constitutional rights of White Buffalo Ventures when the school blocked 59,000 of the firm’s e-mails in 2003. Austin, TX-based White Buffalo, which operates LonghornSingles.com, said its e-mail complied with all anti-spam laws and argued that the federal Can Spam Act of 2003 overrode the university’s anti-spam policy. But the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against that interpretation in August, adding that the rules did not infringe White Buffalo’s rights under the First Amendment.

Jan. 5

PRIMIS MARKETING GROUP acquired CoReg360, a provider of online lead-generation services for publishers and advertisers. There are no planned organizational changes for CoReg360. Jeff Wilkins will continue as the unit’s president and general manager and will report to Primis president and CEO John Healy.

Dec. 14, 2005

Experian acquired comparison-shopping site PriceGrabber.com in a $485 million cash deal. The new holding will become part of Experian’s interactive unit, which includes LowerMyBills.com, MetaReward, Affiliate Fuel, ClassesUSA and Experian Consumer Direct. PriceGrabber is similar to LowerMyBills in that both are lead-referral businesses. Experian is eyeing cross-marketing possibilities between PriceGrabber and its other Internet properties, according to executive vice president Peg Smith. For example, people searching for home improvement loans on LowerMyBills may see ads

Nov. 14, 2005

K+K AMERICA signed a deal to acquire National Business Furniture, a direct marketer with annual revenue of more than $120 million. Both firms are based in Milwaukee. The founders of National Business Furniture, George and Julie Mosher, plan to leave the company when the acquisition is completed at the end of this year. K+K sells office, warehouse and food service equipment. It mails 50 million catalogs and direct mail pieces per year.

Nov. 7

INFOUSA acquired Millard Group, a list management and brokerage firm. The price was $12.4 million in cash, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents later filed. The company will become part of Donnelley Marketing’s group of companies run by president Ed Mallin. Both Millard Group president Ben Perez and Linda McAlleer, executive vice president for the list brokerage and management divisions, will be with the company over the long term, Mallin said.

Oct. 19, 2005

The DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION’S revenue and expenses in fiscal 2004-2005 were both slightly up from last year, while revenue from meetings and conferences dropped, according to the organization’s annual report. The DMA pulled in revenue of $35.1 million for the year ended June 30, compared with $34.7 million in the same 2004 period. Expenses were $26.4 million, compared with $25.7 million the previous year.

Oct. 18

INSERT MEDIA DAY, an event focusing on alternative print media, may be postponed for six months to March 2007 while the DMA’s Insert Media Council re-evaluates the event. Concerns about the health of the 3-year-old conference arose in a telephone meeting of the council’s operating committee. In response, the DMA sent a survey to attendees. There are several issues, according to Jeff Holland, the council’s co-chairman. One is that the September insert show is too close to the annual fall conference. If they have to choose, even insert people will go to the big one, Holland said. The second is the vendor/mailer ratio is weighted heavily in favor of vendors. Of the nearly 270 paid and non-paid visitors to this year’s Insert Day, only 10% were mailers, Holland said. Another problem is that the sessions are repetitive from year to year. Holland dismissed fears that the meeting will be dropped.

Sept. 19, 2005

Conservative mailers are crying foul over a court ruling that bulk mailings by nonprofit UNITED SENIORS ASSOCIATION INC. may have misled senior citizens into thinking they were receiving official correspondence from the Social Security Administration. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia upheld a decision by a Social Security administrative law judge that envelopes mailed by the United Seniors Association used phrases such as

Sept. 13, 2005

LANDMARK COMMUNICATIONS increased its stake in online grocery coupon marketer CoolSavings. The transaction was valued at $16.7 million. Once the conversion is completed, Landmark’s ownership of CoolSavings’ common stock will increase from approximately 66.5% to 91.7%.

Sept. 7

EPSILON, a unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp., acquired e-mail service provider Bigfoot Interactive for $120 million. No layoffs are expected. Bigfoot will be renamed Epsilon Interactive and remain headquartered in New York when the deal closes this fall. This is just one of several recent purchases of e-mail vendors by database marketing services providers. Acxiom Corp announced an agreement in March to acquire Digital Impact. And in January InfoUSA said it would buy e-mail technology company @Once. In addition, Experian acquired CheetahMail in 2004.

Aug. 31, 2005

OLATUNJI OLUWATOSIN, currently serving a 16-month sentence stemming from his role in the Choice-Point data breach, could face an additional 22 years in prison, authorities said. Oluwatosin, who obtained consumer names and credit information from Choice-Point through a series of dummy corporations and mail drops, pleaded no contest to one count of identity theft in February. But a new indictment retuned by the Los Angeles County district attorney charges him with one count of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, five counts of grand theft, 14 counts of identity theft and two counts of credit card access fraud.

EXPERIAN continued its buying spree, adding relationship management service vendor Baker Hill to its holdings. Baker Hill strengthens Experian’s reach into the small-business market. Its client base is made up primarily of banking, credit union and financial service firms.

Aug. 24

AMERICA ONLINE agreed to pay $1.25 million to resolve a New York state probe into complaints that its telephone reps failed to honor customers’ cancellation requests. AOL also will change the way it rewards employees for dissuading subscribers who call to cancel. The company has 60 days to eliminate its program of rewarding bonuses based on minimum

Aug. 18, 2005

A former computer engineer for America Online was sentenced to 15 months in prison for stealing 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses and selling them to an unsolicited bulk e-mail marketer. JASON SMATHERS, who pleaded guilty to violating conspiracy and federal anti-spam laws, sold the e-mail addresses for $100,000.

Aug. 16

CREDIT GIANT EXPERIAN settled government charges that one of its online units, ConsumerInfo.com, duped consumers into buying credit-monitoring services by failing to adequately disclose terms of its free-trial offer for credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission said. The FTC also sent warning letters to operators of more than 130 other Web sites it claims aren’t revealing terms of similar offers. The agency will monitor them to see if further action should be taken. According to the FTC, ConsumerInfo.com neglected, in a national ad campaign and on two Web sites, to make known that consumers would automatically be charged $79.95 annually for a credit-monitoring service if they registered for a free credit report and didn’t unsubscribe before the free trial ended. Experian promoted the reports on its FreeCreditReport.com and ConsumerInfo.com sites, the FTC said. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to pay $950,000 to the FTC and provide refunds to some consumers who signed up for credit reports between November 2000 and September 2003. Since then, the FTC has been satisfied with Experian’s description of the offer’s terms.

Aug. 8

PRIMEDIA INC. agreed to sell its Business Information group for $385 million in cash to PBI Media Holdings Inc., an entity controlled by Wasserstein & Co. L.P., a private equity and investment firm. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes 70 publications, 100 Web sites, 25 events, 50 directories and data products. The sale includes Direct, which is published by Primedia.

July 20, 2005

STRATEGIC MARKETING SOLUTIONS INC., a list brokerage firm specializing in conservative political and religious lists, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy July 11. Walter Karl Inc. and List Services Corp. are among the largest of the 96 creditors listed in court papers. Others include Atlantic List Co., BMW Lists, Bush Co., CrossLists Co., Diamond List Marketing, Estee Marketing Group Inc., List & Data Services Corp., List Dynamics, Midwest Direct Marketing Inc., Name Exchange, Omega List Co., Pinnacle List Co., Robertson Mailing List Co. Superior List, TMA & Associates and Trinity Direct. The firm listed debits of $500,000 and assets of $50,000, and no funds are expected to be available for unsecured creditors, according to court papers. A creditor’s hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 22. The petition is on file with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas division.

July 14

THE COLUMBIA HOUSE CO. settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the FTC’s do-not-call rule. According to the FTC, the firm called tens of thousands of former members who were listed on the FTC’s Do-Not-Call Registry or who had asked not to be called. The continuity club marketer agreed to pay a $300,000 civil fine and refrain from making such calls in the future.

July 12

ACXIOM CORP. said it will lay off 250 employees

June 14, 2005

INTERMIX MEDIA INC. agreed to pay $7.5 million over three years and discontinue distribution of its adware, redirect and toolbar programs in a settlement with the New York state attorney general. The company also created the position of chief privacy officer and joined the Network Advertising Initiative. While admitting no wrongdoing, the company voluntarily ceased distributing the disputed software prior to the settlement.

June 13

INFOUSA INC. founder and CEO Vin Gupta proposed acquiring 38% of his company’s common shares for $11.75 per share and taking the company private through an entity he controls, Vin Gupta & Co. LLC.