Plus Publications was a plus for Frank Bardack, but a negative for Ray Henry.

One of the sadder stories in the annals of newsletter publishing is that of Ray Henry of Plus Publications in Washington, D.C.

In the late 1970s, Henry, a veteran journalist and PR guy, was running a modestly successful newsletter firm in Washington with five or six business-to-business titles. Modestly successful until one fateful day, he said to himself, in words to this effect, "I'm never going to be as successful as my neighbor (and after-hours drinking companion) Ken Callaway at Capitol Publications until I grow up." (CapPub had 25 to 30 titles at the time.)

So Henry went on a growth program almost unparalleled in newsletter history. Like Joe Louis's Bum-of-the-Month heavyweight boxing title defense campaign, Plus launched a title every month for a couple of years.

And when they launched, they launched. They'd hire an experienced editor and use Vol. 1 No. 1 as a sample with the launch mailing. And if their 20,000-piece mailing returned only 69 paid orders, they kept publishing (with the expensive, experienced editor), because "It'll find its market."

But, too often they didn't follow up with more promotions because, by then, Henry had his next great idea and moved on.

Additionally, if it was for sale, Plus acquired it. Even if it was a $29 monthly trade magazine, Plus bought it and converted it to a $157 twice-monthly newsletter with the thought, "We'll see what happens when we try to renew them."

Cash crunches followed. Sell off one of the better titles. CapPub bought several.

Eventually, as recounted in Frank Bardack's story, the whole house of cards collapsed and Plus ended in the sad bankruptcy auction in 1980.

Unfortunately, Ray Henry was serving as the fourth president of the newsletter association at the time. Heady days! Henry resigned and vice president Tom Phillips took over, becoming still the only association president to have served a year and a half instead of the usual year.