Russell Publishing’s Entry Into the List Rental Marketplace

New list business seen as an investment in audience.

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Monday, March 30, 2009

Steven R. Koppelman joined Russell Publishing as circulation director last July as part of an overall process to turn the company into a leading brand in the pharmaceutical publishing industry. This plan included entering the company into the list rental marketplace. “This is not so much a knee-jerk reaction to the economy,” Koppelman told AD, “but a part of our overall strategy to invest in our audience.”

Since the beginning of 2009, Koppelman has been creating datacards, sending them to the major list search engines, such as SRDS, and reaching out to direct marketing communities that would benefit from what Russell has to offer. The company currently has two lists (postal and email) available: American Pharmaceutical Review, which has 30,000 names, and Pharmaceutical Outsourcing, which has 15,000 names.

Koppelman says that he’s optimistic despite the fact that there are many other lists available in this sector.“One of the things that I’m most hopeful about is the names we have,” he says. “They’re still relatively unmined compared to other lists in the market, so they’re going to be more intriguing to direct marketers.”

The next step, Koppelman says, is to create various mail and email promotions and marketing pieces to get the word out that Russell is in the list rental game. “It’s a step-by-step process,” he says. “We’re in the early stages of getting our lists out there, but we have an advantage—we’re small enough that we can be more flexible with marketers’ needs compared to larger companies that are just looking to turn numbers.”

Economy Can Be an Advantage

Koppelman admits that it’s a bit of a scary time for his company to enter the list rental marketplace because of the economic recession, but it may just work to their advantage. “It’s interesting to think that there’s no way for direct mail, for example, to work right now,” he says, “because if mailboxes don’t have all of the clutter in them that they usually have, then perhaps consumers will take a look at a some pieces they never would have before.”

Koppelman adds that the company has no specific goals for how much revenue they want to generate this year from these lists, but they’re optimistic about the future. “Everyone’s saying that direct mail is down, but I still think there’s a good amount to be explored this area. It just depends on the type of offer,” he says. “In some cases, it’s still the best solution. I’m hopeful that there are still enough mailers out there.”