Mal Dunn Associates Inc., Croton Falls, NY, will buy Metamorphics Media LLC, New York, DIRECT Newsline has learned. Terms of the acquisition of the gay and lesbian list brokerage and consultancy were not available by deadline.
According to Sean Strub, founder and chairman of Metamorphics Media, and Stephen Dunn, president of Mal Dunn, Metamorphics Media will operate independently, retaining its offices and employees. Such back-room operations as billing and fulfillment will be handled by the larger firm, while the smaller Metamorphics Media will focus on consulting and managing gay and lesbian lists. Strub will remain involved with the company, and Dunn plans to add more staff to the unit.
“I feel it’s a strong market focus for direct marketers especially,” Dunn added. When the possibility of the sale was first reported in DIRECT Newsline (June 14), Dunn pointed out Metamorphics Media “has the gay, lesbian, and AIDS market cornered and we have the infrastructure to better serve the market.”
“I have good feelings about this,” Strub said. “Mal Dunn will extend the reach of who our lists can be sold to. Larger mailers often pass over smaller firms with smaller lists.”
Metamorphics Media began over 15 years ago as a political fundraising consultancy, Sean O. Strub Inc. Strub became a list manager/broker when he found there were no gay lists to use for a SAGE fundraising letter. Strub later partnered with Todd Collins and the company became Strub Collins. After Collins relocated to Boston, Strub took a new business partner, Ken Dawson, making the company Strub Dawson. After Dawson’s death, the company was renamed Strubco. The name was changed again to Metamorphics Media a couple of years ago.
Ironically, the first list broker Strub approached for his first fundraising client was Mal Dunn, Stephen’s father, and founder of Mal Dunn Associates.