1980s desktop publishing revolution inspired Guy Celala to strike out on his own. (Publisher Profile).

"In total, we had more than 100 subscribers in the two World Trade Towers," said publisher Guy Cecala of Inside Mortgage Finance Publications Inc. to describe the ripple effect of the most terrible day in recent US. history on a suburban Washington, D.C., newsletter publisher.

"We tried to be proactive," Cecala explained, "went looking for our readers. The firms wanted to get relocated and back in business as quickly as possible. We sent packages of back issues and so forth. But," he concluded, "some of our subscribers were killed."

Guy Cecala's path to newsletter publishing began in daily newspaper journalism in New Hamphire and Vermont. He decided fame and fortune awaited in Washington, D.C., so he convinced his wife that it was a good idea, landed a teaching fellowship at the University of Maryland, and relocated. While earning his master's degree, he found that newspaper jobs seemed scarce in Washington but that newsletter opportunities were plentiful.

He took his first newsletter job at Capitol Publications in 1980. "Seeing the keg of Heineken in publisher Ken Callaway's office may have been what sold me.

He stayed about a year, during which time he reconfirmed what he had suspected--that he really enjoyed detailed business reporting more than covering politics and other areas--but that he hated the oil industry which was his beat. "No offense to people who are still publishing successfully in that area," he said. But when a mortgage newsletter publisher offered a position (and more money) he jumped.

"Over the next two and a half or three years I got a complete education in newsletter publishing, not only reporting, but marketing, dealing with printers, hiring and firing staff I also realized there was opportunity in the field when subscribers frequently asked, 'Are there any other newsletters in the field I can get?'"

In 1984 Cecala got excited about PCs. "I realized I could do it all myself--no typesetters, graphic artists, outside list managers. I plunked down $4,000 for a PC and spent the next three months alone in my basement teaching myself Dbase and Lotus 1-2-3."

Cecala's first launch

Then he launched Inside Mortgage Finance (weekly, $789/year). About a year working at home was driving him nuts, and he moved out. Today Cecala publishes eight titles with 12 employees. "We're still small enough that an actual live person answers the phone." All are in the mortgage area except Small Business Tax Control (monthly, $175/year), which he acquired in 1995. "I call it my feeble attempt at diversification," he said.

The '80s were good times for mortgage publishing, he said, "until the market crash in 1987 forced the market to take a closer look at its costs. Firms that had been taking 10 copies of my newsletters suddenly cut down to two."

"Today it's very rare for one person to subscribe to all eight of our newsletters, although sometimes different people in a firm take different ones."

The '90s were also boom times in his markets. "We launched a title in 1996 to a key list of 10,000 prospects and, within a year, had more than 1,000 subscribers at over $500/year. We consistently returned $2 or even $3 on our promotional mailings. The office joke was we could drop a package out the window and get a subscriber.

(Cecala's most expensive newsletter is Inside MBS & ABS, a weekly at $1,399/year.)

"It's not that way today, but we are able, using tightly focused smaller mailings, to return $1 or more for our promotional dollar--$1.50 or $1.60 for ancillary products."

One of the few to launch in 2002

"In 2002 we launched two new titles, the first in several years. The mortgage industry is consolidating, there are fewer players. We need to find new specialty topics we can market to our core audience. It's certainly tougher to do in 2002 than in 1984. People aren't asking if there are any more newsletters they can buy. We may be the last independent newsletter publisher in the market. We do have competition from free and controlled circ publications."

The internet

Cecala is not rhapsodic about the web. "On the plus side, it has been good for us--very useful in development and sale of site licenses for one thing. Delivering 500 is a piece of cake from the web site, a lot simpler than on paper."

But as far as marketing goes, while Inside Mortgage Finance does currently get "about 10 percent" of their revenues from online sources, "Basically those people are actively seeking information about the mortgage business. If the internet didn't exist, I expect they might well have found our phone number and called, credit card in hand."

Cecala remains upbeat about business. "Times are pretty good in our industry today. About right. The prospects have to be doing well enough to afford our products, but not with lines of applicants outside the door; many are too busy to have time for 'information."'

7910 Woodmont Ave., #1010, Bethesda, MD 20814, 301-951-1240, fax [phone], www.imfpubs.com