E-mail lists cost less: Worldata

Fall 2009 consumer e-mail list prices are down 24% year over year to $114 per thousand, according to Worldata's latest List Price Index.

"It's a direct reflection of the economy," said Jay Schwedelson, VP at Worldata, explaining the precipitous drop. Consumer e-mail exhibited the largest price decrease. Most other categories are stabilizing after reaching bottom, he added.

"Demand is low to begin with because no one is prospecting," Schwedelson explained.

He suggested that the landscape is worse than the numbers suggest: "Keep in mind, this is rate card, not taking into account any discounting."

The lowest percentage decrease occurred in the public sector list category, with a 0.57% drop in average list price to $173/M.

Printed newsletter and donor categories were the two sectors showing increases this year, up 3.64% to $171/M and 1.2% to $84/M, respectively. Business-to-business e-mail is the highest-priced domestic category, with a straight average price of $288/M, a decrease of $5/M from last year.

Fall 2009 also marks the first full-year that international e-mail data was tracked. That category's prices are holding steady quarter-to-quarter, but have fell compared to last year. l