Ira Mayer and Riva Bennett have firm lock on entertainment marketing.

In the 1980s Ira Mayer had a night job as a rock and roll critic and a day job as an entertainment business journalist--including regularly contributing to The Village Voice, The New York Post, Rolling Stone, High Fidelity, Stereo Review, and the Sunday New York Times.

"I was working for longtime newsletter publisher Tim Baskerville. Tim was kind enough to teach me not only the specialized nature of newsletter journalism but also the newsletter business itself," Mayer told NL/NL.

"Tim eventually sold the business to Phillips Publishing and I didn't go along with the deal.

"At the time I was doing some research for LINK Resources. My wife, Riva Bennett, was working there. We looked at each other and thought, 'I'm doing the writing, you're handling the marketing end ...' and the idea of a newsletter came naturally."

Entertainment marketing business

Sometime after that, I returned from a sports marketing conference and realized that, as far as I could see, no one was covering the entertainment marketing business in the same overall sense," Mayer said.

"Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and other titles had parts of the business, but there didn't appear to be a single publication covering the business as a whole."

Mayer's discovery is a classic one in the newsletter field--identifying a relatively large and viable industry not being serviced by a publication.

He continued, "So, one Friday evening in March of 1988 at 7:00 p.m. (when the phone rates changed in those days), we sent out 1,200 one-page faxes to the list of fax numbers I'd gathered in my experience. It said, basically, 'We're launching this newsletter that will do such and such. If you'd like to subscribe, initial at the lower left corner and return to us.'

"Monday morning we found we had three orders and decided we were in the newsletter business. We launched in June," Mayer said. That launch, the twice-monthly Entertainment Marketing Letter, now sells for $449/year.

Pulling together the entertainment marketing field

"One of the things I learned from Tim Baskerville was to include contact information for everyone mentioned in Entertainment Marketing Letter. 'Diligent' really isn't a strong enough word to describe our practice," Mayer said.

"Subscribers told us it was fine to have all the contact information, but, 'These people are deal-makers, we need to meet them face-to-face.' We were then in the conference business. This year's edition is the 16th Entertainment Marketing Conference.

"At the end of the first year we pulled together all of the contact information we had published and offered it as a mini-industry directory as a renewal premium. It was very well received so we expanded it and published it as a stand-alone directory.

"After about 18 months, we were in the newsletter, conference and directory business," Mayer concluded.

Today the New York City-based EPM Communications Inc. publishes six newsletters* ("We've acquired some, beginning with The Licensing Letter, launched some, and folded some over the years"); two directories; several conferences; some research reports ("For The Licensing Letter it seems we can't do too many reports, which is a nice thing"); and bit of consulting.

Marketing

"After 9/11 we stopped marketing," Mayer said of his company only blocks away from ground zero. "Not entirely, but greatly reduced and lived on the renewals from the subscribers we had. It was really only at the beginning of 2004 that we were back to our previous levels.

"We use direct mail, mainly FFTs for the newsletters and self-mailers for the special reports."

The internet

Asked about EPM's use of the internet, Mayer said, "It's been added value for us as a marketing vehicle and I think the various NEPA listservs are an excellent example of how valuable it can be as a communications tool.

"On the other hand, yes, it's probably hurt 'some' in terms of the perception people may have that information is out there 'free.' I don't think anyone has yet found the 'best' way to utilize it. My experience is that there usually isn't a single magic bullet."

Competition

Noting, as we report above, that Mayer "discovered" an emerging field not being serviced by a publication, we asked him if EPM now finds itself competing with any trade associations.*

He replied, "Several so far as conferences." For Entertainment Marketing Letter, he said, "The Promotional Marketing Association (PMA) started a Star Power event that competes with our Entertainment Marketing Conference a year after we started our first one." That was 16 years ago.

"The short of it is that Star Power continues, and so do we," Mayer said. "We've tried really hard to differentiate ourselves."

With The Licensing Letter, "There's a trade show that was started by the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association (LIMA) that existed long before we took over the newsletter.

"The show is now owned by Advanstar, which also publishes a magazine in the field.... We scale our conferences small, so they're the intimate events where serious networking takes place and issues are discussed.

"But we have a strong working relationship with Advanstar and LIMA." Indeed, LIMA endorses EPM's licensing business directory.

As far as Research Alert and EPM's other targeted marketing newsletters, "The Advertising Research Foundation and ESOMAR serve those segments with conferencees, as do the for-profit conference companies.

"We've done a few, the last of which were September 10, 11 and 12, 2001, in downtown Manhattan. The one on the 10th was great; the one on the 11th was starting just as the first plane hit the first of the Twin Towers."

Spouses working together

Asked about his experience running the company for more than 15 years now with his wife, Riva Bennett," Mayer explained, "It works for us. We sit about 10 feet apart in the office.

"Do we have disagreements sometimes? Of course we do.

"I guess it's more common for the wife to have a larger role in 'early days' of an operation and, as it becomes larger, step back. But that's not true here. Riva is the chief operating officer and handles all of the business side and I'm basically editorial."

EPM also has a vice president for marketing, Michele Jensen, who, incidentally, co-chairs the New York chapter of NEPA.

"When our son was five years old," Mayer said, "he was stuffing envelopes and in later years he did telemarketing for us. He's 18 now and off to college and it's far too soon to know if he or his sister (15) will ever have an interest in coming into the business."

NEPA

Indefatigable worker that he is, Mayer has also been very active in the newsletter association, serving as a board member, officer, and conference chairman.

"Partly," he said, "it's to give back and partly to expand my range of contacts. It's been incredibly valuable to us, not just the pile of goodies you get when you join, but the networking.

"The NEPA staff can almost always either answer a question or direct you to someone who can. And this testimonial comes from someone who is not generally a 'good committee person.' Most entrepreneurs," he observed, "are not."

EPM, 160 Mercer St., 3rd Fl., New York, NY 10012, 212-941-0099, fax [phone], www.epmcom.com

* In addition to its flagship Entertainment Marketing Letter, EPM publishes these newsletters:

* The Licensing Letter, 24x, $467/year

* Research Alert, 24x, $389/year

* Youth Markets Alert, 12x, $349/year

* Marketing to the Emerging Majorities, 12x, $325/year

* Marketing to Women, 12x, $357/year

* Ira Mayer's experience in founding EPM somewhat parallels Howard Penn Hudson's and The Newsletter on Newsletters. This newsletter was founded in 1964 in Chicago. By 1968 Hudson had discovered the little-know world of subscription newsletters and acquired NL/NL, began offering workshops on "How to Start a Newsletter," organized conferences, began publishing a directory on subscription newsletters, and started a newsletter awards program.

Once the first national newsletter association was founded--in which Hudson was instrumental--he "gave" the annual conference to the association.