Checking back, post pet-food poisonings, with David Lee at Tufts Media.

Almost universally, successful newsletters cover niche areas mostly overlooked by the general media. So what happens when, suddenly, "news" in your area is all over the front pages and TV?

Last issue we profiled David Lee at Tufts Media LLC, and now we have followed up on that interview to ask how the poisoned pet food story affected Catnip and Your Dog. What can a monthly newsletter do to appear "on top of" a story like this one?

"We are planning on coverage of the food safety issue," Lee explains, "with perspective on the panic, and, since in my opinion the whole issue of this recent incident has not yet been fully and properly resolved, perhaps we will have the true story, along with the needed caveats.

"For example, millions of meals are served to young children every day on melamine, and now you are telling us that it can be poisonous to pets? How? Why? When? Where? Are kids safe? Why? How? Explain!!! This whole thing is a mess of epic proportions and needs a full-court press by industry and government to bring out the truth and tell us what steps are being taken to prevent any recurrence."

Lee didn't say but I'd guess this was an instance when he regrets that their website, which is scheduled for update and improvement, was not up to scratch. If they were able, I assume they would have breaking news updates there.

Cross-pollination of 3 newsletters?

We also wondered if Lee saw much opportunity for "cross-pollination" among his 3 newsletters--the 2 for pet owners and the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter. Are people who are concerned with their pets' nutrition also interested in their own and vice-versa?

"Each market has its own set of dynamics," Lee says. "The new business direct mail response is more robust for the pet publications, but the list universes are smaller. You would think you could find names all over the place, but certain eternal truths seem to hold.

"For example, many years ago when I was at CBS Magazines under John Suhler, the publisher of World Tennis magazine complained all the time that there were 40 million tennis players, but the circulation was only, at that time, 200,000 or so. So there is a 'world of difference' between the broader market data on an interest area, and the actual mailable and promotable universe," Lee says.

"In renewals, the strongest renewals are for the Health & Nutrition Letter (HNL) and not the pet pubs. This seems to reflect another eternal truism--the purer the self-interest, the higher the renewal rate. Readers of the HNL get news they can use to help themselves. They love their pets, but they love themselves more.

Cat owners have stronger attachment than dog owners to their pets

"It is also true that, for our publications, cat owners seem to have stronger attachment to and interest in their cats than dog owners. It is not wildly different, but cat owners do seem more responsive," Lee observes.

"The interesting fact is that we sell the HNL much better to the pet newsletters than the other way around. Again, personal health is more ubiquitous. Every pet owner can worry about their health and nutrition, but not every HNL reader has a pet. We do very well, far better than I expected, selling the HNL to the pet newsletter readers."

Other Differences Between the Titles

The Tufts Health and Nutrition Letter is the largest circulation but is "managed" the same way as the pet letters. Because it is 8-12 pp (Catnip is 24, Your Dog 16), they use a different printer and it is fulfilled folded in an envelope rather than mailed flat. After testing they shifted to 3rd class Standard rate--delivery results are excellent, Lee says, although they do lose the Change of Address feature of 2nd class. "We have to rely more on our readers."

For the nutrition letter, 4 issues a year are 12 pages containing a special report. Those are timed to be the first issues after marketing campaigns and, Lee says, "improve results." They accept unpaid orders, which is unusual for lower price consumer newsletters.

Competition

The nutrition letter competes with, among others, The Nutrition Action Letter (NL/NL, 10/04/06). "We respect what they do," Lee says, "but they are an advocacy group as part of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. We're lower key, we publish research and scientific information. We make 'suggestions,' we don't try to tell readers what they should never eat. Our typical subscriber is a college graduate, probably with a graduate degree; they can make their own decisions."

As an ancillary service they also review and sell other publishers' books in their news-letters. "Also," Lee notes, "we recommend 'books to avoid.' Especially in the nutrition field, there is a lot of just plain bad information out there. Go to Amazon.com and search for books under 'nutrition and health.'" (I got over 20,000).

Tufts Media LLC, 200 Boston Ave., #3500, Medford, MA 02156, David Lee, 617-627-5632, www.tufts.edu