A Partnership in the Making?

Therefore, you’ll need to negotiate a net-name arrangement directly with the publisher. Consider the following factors when negotiating a net-name arrangement.

* List rentals are profitable; getting a series of smaller list rentals is better than getting no list rental income at all because the list is below breakeven.

* You’ll share the results with the magazine publishers and educate them on the potential of increasing their list rental income.

* You may purchase space ads in the magazine to get catalog requests.

* You can share the results from optimizing competitive magazines.

* You can offer to share your National Change of Address adjustments and other list hygiene data you collect in your merge with the magazine.

* You can offer to share the results of your optimization so publishers can use this data to encourage other list rentals.

* You can ensure that their list won’t be added permanently to your database or used without their permission.

* You can offer to exchange your buyers for their upcoming direct mail efforts for new subscribers.

Having access to magazine lists within your merchandise category can be a major source of profitable prospecting names. Work with magazine publishers to negotiate net-name arrangements and encourage them to use co-op databases to make their subscriber lists profitable.

Jim Coogan is president of Catalog Marketing Economics, a Santa Fe, N.M.-based consulting firm focused on catalog circulation planning. You can reach him at (505) 986-9902 or jcoogan@earthlink.net.