Ten Years After

Oh no, is it really October already?

We’re not ready. Our bodies are not up to four days of nonstop running and party going.

But like you, we’ll have to bear up. This year’s DMA fall conference promises to be the biggest and best ever, and we’re especially psyched because we’ll be hitting an important milestone.

It was exactly 10 years ago, at the fall conference in Atlanta, that DIRECT made its debut as a publication.

As editor Carolyn Gould wrote in her opening editorial, the objective was “to bring together editorial excellence with direct marketing know-how, and provide you with the most effective tool of the trade-information.”

That’s still the objective, but many other things have changed since then (see our story on page 75).

For example, they were less likely to pursue graduate education in related DM subjects (see our cover story by Thom Weidlich).

The talented folks pictured in our cover photo worked long and hard to get their masters’, most of them after they were already on the job. And they’re only the tip of the iceberg-there are at least a couple of hundred others out there.

But we have to thank two key people for making it all possible. One is Nat Ross, who took over the NYU program in 1967.

DM education was practically nonexistent in those days, but Nat fought the good fight and made the NYU DM program a model for schools throughout the country.

A Hall of Fame member who also created the DMA roundtables and the Direct Marketing Idea Exchange, Nat remains a thought leader and an important influence on many DMers.

The other is Ted Spiegel, who built and ran the first real master’s program-the Medill program at Northwestern. Ted comes from one of direct marketing’s most distinguished families. He learned DM working his way up the ranks at the family enterprise-Spiegel Inc.

We say thanks to Nat and Ted, to Dick Montesi and Laurie Spar at the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation and to everyone else involved in this important work.

Any other kudos to hand out before we leave for San Francisco? Yes, two-to the only remaining DIRECT staff members who were with the publication at the start.

One is Jeff Reinhardt, group publisher of DIRECT, Catalog Age and American Demographics. He was listed on the 1988 masthead as an account executive.

Then there’s our talented art director Kelly Roberto, who started as a production assistant in 1988.

Good work, guys.