Mealey's newsletter on anti-impotency drugs failed to take off.

"Follow-Up" reports on the status of newsletters founded about two years ago, which is the critical time frame for success or failure since the publisher has gone through two renewal cycles.

The publisher of Mealey Publications Inc. knows when to fold and when to enfold a newsletter to achieve a track record of an $8 million annual gross.

The publisher, Tom Hagy, launched Mealey's Viagra Watch in mid-1998 (later changed to Mealey's Impotency Drug Watch), but it quickly became obvious it wouldn't take off on its own.

So Hagy folded it into Mealey's Emerging Drugs and Devices, which is issued 24 times a year at a rate of $650 compared to the 12-times-a-year $295 rate for Impotency Drug Watch.

Hagy said the defunct newsletter was launched by announcing it through a proven and tested direct mail list, but after a few months it was obvious the publication wouldn't blossom.

"We simply didn't sell enough subscriptions," Hagy recalled.

He said the newsletter was aimed at attorneys who could become involved in litigation concerning anti-impotency drugs. "Frankly, there just have not been that many lawsuits involving them," Hagy told NL/NL. One would, however, be hard put to find an area of litigation that isn't covered by one of Mealey's looseleaf newsletters.

What Hagy had in mind when he launched the anti-impotency drug newsletter was to cover the controversary, claims and complaints, insurance and regulatory developments, health risks, class-action complaints, and medical studies--as well as industry news on sales and marketing disputes, manufacturing finances, and international news briefs.

"But litigation did not develop," Hagy said.

He added, however, that anti-impotency drugs continue to be covered in Mealey's Emerging Drugs and Devices.

"We may not cover them as thoroughly as we did in the newsletter devoted exclusively to them, but nevertheless we continue to cover them adequately," Hagy said.

When asked whether his newsletters were distributed electronically, Hagy answered, "Everything we produce has been distributed electronically for the past couple of years."

He said the new ways of distributing newsletters have brought more pressure on editors. "They're going to have to be sharper and faster," he said. "They're going to have to cover their fields comprehensively and provide material in every format."

Hagy said he believes some subscribers are going to want slices from the various newsletters a company publishes, and editors are going to have to provide information to fill that requirement.

Hagy said about 80 percent of the subscribers to Mealey's 27 newsletters are attorneys.

"We set an annual target for each of our newsletters," Hagy said, "and it's simply that each newsletter must grow at least 10 percent each year."

Hagy, who has a bachelor's degree in communications from Bethany College, W.V., said his company has a total staff of 47, of which 15 are in the editorial department. There are also five in marketing, five involved in staging the company's conferences, five in customer service, plus others in accounting, production and research.

Hagy said he had noticed no strong resistence to subscription prices even though he occasionally hears complaints about them.

"Our subscribers are mostly lawyers who need the information we provide. They don't seem to worry about the subscription price.

"After all, they stand to win or lose millions in the cases they litigate, and they aren't going to worry about a subscription price if they can obtain the information they need," Hagy added.

Mealey's latest launches are Nursing Home Litigation and Mealey's Litigation Report: Diabetes Drugs.