How the newsletter business has (and hasn't) changed in 40 years.

"it's hard to imagine that I've been writing newsletters for nearly 40 years," commented Dale Hudelson, who started out in the early '60s covering Mercury and Apollo programs as editor of Space Business Daily.

In 1965 Hudelson, ad man Ken Callaway, who wrote marketing copy, and a third partner who had a printing press in his basement launched Capitol Publications with Economic Opportunity Report, covering the war of poverty. ("It's still with us; poverty won," Hudelson noted.)

Leaving Cap Pub after 11 years, Hudelson has since then published a Washington research service, written newsletters for two education trade associations, and--for the past seven years--published Career Pathways Report, covering school to work programs.

"I wouldn't have minded becoming a multi-millionaire like Tom Phillips," he allowed, "but it's been my observation that people who really like editorial writing and people who are really good businessmen are seldom the same person. ...I guess certainly I'm not."

* What's the biggest change in the nearly 40 years you've been in the newsletter business?

"When we launched Cap Pub our usual marketing hook was 'information you simply cannot get anywhere else,' and it was pretty much true of specialized business titles. We had local community action agencies subscribing to EOR and saying, 'It's the only way we can learn what's going on in Washington and at OEO.'

"Today, no one needs 'more information.' We're all up to our belly buttons in information. The function of the specialized newsletter is to sort out the information the subscriber needs from the tons of stuff out there... .These days I find myself writing selling copy like, 'Don't waste hours searching the world-wide web...."'

* How about marketing?

"I don't think it's rocket science. When I began I sent sample issues. Now I don't. If you have a good topic and the right lists, the standard newsletter package of letter, order form, editorial premium will work. I don't think you need the most clever copy ever written to sell. Now, when I got 'ambitious' and tried to expand my universe by mailing marginal lists, the same 'winning package' didn't work."

* Has the internet 'changed everything'?

"Not in the education area. Now, it has changed the gathering of news. My editor must have a dozen web sites bookmarked to visit to check for news and developments, but my readers don't. They're still depending on me to tell them what's new and important, what's relevant to their jobs.

"Maybe if you write for a different audience that does spend all day in front of their computer screens, that's different."

* Has the nature of newsletters changed?

"When we launched Economic Opportunity Report, the war on poverty was hot news. I don't think I ever imagined that it would still be published in 2001, but it is.

"My present newsletter, Career Pathways Report, is coming to a crossroads. I launched it in 1994 when the School to Work Opportunities Act was being enacted. It was a classic newsletter opportunity: new programs, new regulations, lots of new money from Washington. But I certainly wasn't the only person smart enough to see this. ...Before I knew it I had about six competitors fighting for market share.

"Now this coming October the STW Act is scheduled to 'sunset.' The programs it funded may live on with different names, we'll have to see. In retrospect, it was a great idea not to have called the letter the School to Work Opportunities Act Report, but that was just luck.

Now, if this newsletter winds up being published for as long as EOR, I'll be close to 100 years old. That would be enough newsletter writing for anyone."

* How about the future?

"I can speak about the education market. There couldn't be a better time to be in the newsletter business. President Bush is proposing to change everything: block grants of funds to the states, mandatory annual testing vouchers. This sort of stuff is the staff of life to newsletter editors. Newsletter publishers ought to get down on their knees every day, face the U.S. Supreme Court, and give thanks to them for declaring George Wubja President."

* Any parting advice?

"Become a price hawk. The service business newsletters render is worth real money to subscribers. You, Fred Goss, used to advise would-be publishers that 'fewer people will subscribe to your newsletter than you hope but those who want the information will be willing to pay more than you think.'

"Of course, I don't follow my own advice. I haven't changed the price on CPR since the launch, but I remember sitting in the Red Lion bar in Washington 30 years ago when EOR was at $95 and we were arguing whether we could go over $100, or was that too significant a 'price point'? The current publisher has it over $400 and that's only keeping up with inflation.

"There's no reason lawyers and management consultants should be the only people who know what their expertise is worth."