Joel Whitaker: journalist, lawyer, publisher--but not marketer or launcher. (Publisher Profile).

Joel Whitaker of Whitaker Newsletters, Fanwood, New Jersey, believes he is one of a handful of publishers active in the business in 2003 who were publishing a subscription newsletter in the 1950s. Launched from his mother's kitchen table, International Short-Wave News peaked at a paid subscription level of about 30, and more than 20 years passed before Whitaker returned to newsletters.

Armed with a journlism degree from Indiana University, Whitaker began a newspaper career that included stops at the St. Petersburg Times, The Wall Street Journal, and as the last business editor of Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. (Tip: Never go to work for a failing newspaper.)

Along the way he also picked up a law degree before joining Institutional Investor as editor of Bank Letter.

Whitaker entered the business on his own in 1981 by purchasing a newsletter then called Packascope USA. "That sounded like a medical procedure, and probably an unpleasant one," Whitaker said, "so I retitled it Packaging Letter."

Over the next two decades Whitaker Newsletters waxed and waned in size as he both bought and sold newsletters. "I've seldom launched a title in all my years in the business. Not counting Short-Wave News, New York Education Law Report, and Pennsylvania Education Law Report, all growth has been by acquisition."

At a peak point, Whitaker was publishing 11 or 12 titles with an editorial staff of eight or nine.

"And then one morning oh 18 to 24 months ago, I woke up and realized I just wasn't happy. I didn't enjoy what I was doing. I don't enjoy marketing. And I realized my old boss at The Bulletin, George Kentera, was right when he said personnel matters took up about 80 percent of his time," Whitaker said.

"So I made the decision to downsize and when we finished we had reached our current size. Five newsletters and no in-house editorial staff at all. Two of the titles, DWI Journal and New Jersey Education Law Week, are written by longtime contract editors, and I write the other three myself, Kane's Beverage Week, The Soft Drink Letter, and Service Dealers Newsletter--a weekly, a biweekly, and a monthly."

Marketing

"Following all this, I went to the newsletter association conference last June with a plan in mind: to find a marketing person. Because I don't enjoy it, we tended not to do nearly enough of it. What you don't like doing gets shoved to the bottom of the pile.

"Ken Callaway used to tell his staff to 'just get in the mail.' And Tom Phillips used to say, 'If you want to get mail (with checks) you've got to send mail.' What we weren't doing was getting promotions in the mail," Whitaker said.

"Armed with a recommendation from a colleague here in New Jersey, I was able to make an arrangement with Leslie Davidson, of Davidson Direct in Northern California, I think the conference was only the second time we'd ever met--by sheer coincidence (earlier in her career she handled the marketing for DWI Journal)--but the arrangement is working very well. Her marketing brief is to 'get it in the mail.'

"Previously we were probably promoting each title only once a year, or maybe every nine months. After less than a year we've basically doubled that and we'll see where we go from here.

"She's tough as nails, which is what I want. Our longtime mail-house always had a problem meeting mail dates. Leslie told them that for every day they missed--unless it was our fault--she'd knock 5 percent off the invoice. Even that didn't work, so last week she moved our promotion production out of New Jersey to an outfit in Minnesota that does meet deadlines."

As an elected official in New Jersey, Whitaker said, "Moving business to Minnesota doesn't make me real happy. If we can find a New Jersey outfit that meets Leslie's standards, we'll move back."

2003 (and beyond)

"I think we'll finally have a web presence. I haven't been eager to jump in because I think print is going to be around for a very long time. But now I understand that Quickfill has a system where online orders can go directly into your database. As a small publisher, I'm interested in that. I expect we'll be online by the end of the year, perhaps sooner."

Whitaker thinks ancillaries are a part of his refocused future. "As we speak, I'm editing a special report for SDN--sort of a "Best of..." report--that we're putting together from past articles. I'm excited about this project. In 20 years, I've done only two of these before and they weren't very well done," Whitaker said.

"Now we plan to use them both as premiums and for direct sales. I'm considering a price that might allow small space ads in the trade magazines--"29 Ways to Improve Your..."--that would bring in buyers as qualified prospects for the newsletter. This year we have a survey in every issue of the newsletter that should turn nicely into a 'snapshot of the industry' report by the end of the year."

Both egotist and realist 

"And I'm egotistical enough," Whitaker concluded, "to think I might go on the road as a consultant and speaker to those small businesses such as subscribe to Service Dealers Newsletter.

"I've heard colleagues note that you can only sell an hour of your time as a speaker or consultant once, but can leverage it many times staying in your office and launching a new title.

"I'm sure that's true, but, as I've observed, I don't launch new newsletters.

RO. Box 340, Fanwood, NJ 07023, 908-889-6336, fax [phone], [e-mail]