Rose Gordon

Dan Springer, chairman and CEO of email services provider Responsys, helped take the company public in April, raising about $70 million in net proceeds.

Agencies finished last year with improved revenues and are racing to scoop up new business as marketers begin to shop again. This year, as Direct Marketing News interviewed executives at dozens of the leading firms, the message we heard over and over again was "revenues are back."

After buying some pillows from Pottery Barn a few months ago, I landed on their catalog and email marketing rotation. I get a catalog from them at least once a month, but the emails were arriving every two days.

Wasp Barcode Technologies, a Plano, Texas-based small business that manufactures barcode software and solutions for other small businesses, recently went from blasting its entire list with the same emails to segmenting that base and then layering on top a series of triggered email messages.

Twelve years after it sold its first book, Amazon now sells more e-books than printed copies.

We're in the throes of putting together our annual Agency Business Report that examines the financial health and trends among direct marketing agencies.

Proximity has named agency veteran Andrew Bailey chairman of North America, a new position at the digital and CRM shop, as of July 1. Bailey most recently led Proximity Canada as president and CEO. In addition, Chris Thomas, another veteran of the BBDO firm, will succeed Andrew Robertson as chairman of Proximity Worldwide.

The Tafford Uniforms brand has sold nurses' scrubs and other medical uniforms to healthcare workers for nearly 25 years. While other brands focused on a b-to-b model by negotiating bulk contracts with healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, Tafford remained committed to selling directly to the individual worker.

Apple is storing a detailed - unencrypted - summary of where its iPhone and iPads travel, according to a study released this week.

This is the chart I encountered when trying to figure out how to use existing miles to upgrade to business class on United for a flight to Hawaii this summer. It's a long flight from the East Coast, and we have a lot of miles saved up.