Two-year-old China Watch growing at "nice speed".

"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.

Among the emerging international markets China has a very strong pull, and that is why executive editor Richard W. Foster believes his China Watch newsletter is doing so well just two years after its launch.

With his brother and partner, Stephen M. Foster, who is publisher, Dick Foster created China Watch, "a monthly analytical report on politics, business and the economy of China."

"It has been doing very well," Foster told NL/NL, "and in two years it has gained half the subscription strength of Brazil Watch, a newsletter we've been publishing for 15 years."

In addition to the monthly Brazil Watch, China Watch and Mexico Watch, the Foster brothers' Orbis Publications LLC publishes Weekly Fax Bulletins on Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and China, a unified Asia Weekly Executive Briefing, and the Andean Weekly Fax Bulletin, which covers Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.

The Washington, D.C.-based company also publishes three annual directories on Brazil, China, and Mexico.

The $425/year China Watch goes primarily to multinational business executives.

Editor is Derek Scissors, who has a master's degree in economics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in international relations from Stanford University and who taught economics for three years in the People's Republic of China. Scissors also edits the 1,300 China Weekly Fax Bulletin, which Foster said began to break even in less than two years.

How have the Foster brothers promoted China Watch?

"We used mailings lists of current and recently expired subscribers," Foster said, "and we've used 45 brokered lists of similar and rival publications.

"Our overall strategy," he added, "has been to use the client base as well as experimenting with other lists to obtain new subscribers."

Foster said his renewal rate for China Watch has been running about 70 percent, as compared with Mexico Watch's renewal rate of 55 to 60 percent.

The newsletter shares the company web site, www.orbispub.com or www.orbispublications.com, with Orbis' other publications. The site also includes a free economic forecast for any of a number of countries selected.

"We started sometime ago diverting our weeklies to fax and e-mail with no increase in cost to subscribers," Foster said. "About 60 percent of the weeklies are faxed, while only about 18 percent of the monthlies go by e-mail instead of snail mail."

Foster said that he and his brother had invested more than $40,000 to launch China Watch, and he believes the investment is paying off.

"The newsletter has grown at a nice speed," he said.

Foster, a onetime Associated Press correspondent in Latin America, is at home on the editorial side of his newsletters, while his brother, Steve, a marketing expert, has found his niche on the business side.

Dick Foster believes it's an ideal combination that has worked successfully for their 15-year-old newsletter company.

And what's the thrust of China Watch? "It searches out raw, original information about the Chinese market, and then puts it into understandable language" Foster answered.

"One doesn't have much confidence in Chinese statistics, so they must be properly and accurately interpreted," Foster added. "After all, the economy is much different than that in a capitalist country.

"So, interpreting Chinese information is much more difficult."

On the subject of pricing his newsletters, Foster said, "We've been flexible on prices since we started. For instance, with our Brazil Watch we have two prices--a Brazilian price that is lower than the one in the U.S."

3201 New Mexico Ave. NW, #249, Washington, DC 20016, 202-237-0155, fax [phone], www.orbispub.com.