TORONTO — List management and online media placement firm Worldata/WebConnect, Boca Raton, FL, is in the process of compiling data for what the company claims is the first launch of a major consumer publisher's opt-in e-mail lists.
“This is the first time that a publisher that has a strong consumer focus is coming out onto the market with their opt-in e-mail lists, which is really going to pave the way for a lot of the other companies,” Worldata corporate vice president Jay Schwedelson told DM News.
That publisher is Imagine Media, a company that puts out 10 computer, gaming and Net magazines, including MacAddict, PC Gamer, Dreamcast and, most significantly, Business 2.0. Worldata plans to debut the list with an initial 100,000 e-mail addresses, a number Schwedelson expects to have gathered by the end of December.
Worldata holds exclusive management rights to the e-mail lists, and the company will manage a separate e-mail list for each magazine. Worldata has managed Imagine Media's traditional mail lists since February, meaning the company will be able to link some offline data to the e-mail addresses and target consumers by ZIP codes, geographic location and other traditionally offline variables.
Imagine Media, Brisbane, CA, began accumulating the e-mail addresses in early October through Web sites each of the magazines operates for taking subscriptions. At the end of the sign-up process, new subscribers are given the option of checking a box with the understanding that they'll get e-mail promotions from “reputable companies,” Schwedelson said. Worldata consulted Imagine Media on writing the online pitch to get people to opt-in.
“We've really tried to take the stance that we don'' want to grandfather anybody in,” Schwedelson said. “There's no opt-out. This is all people saying, 'Yes, I'd like to receive this mail.' “
Worldata will transmit e-mails, handle tracking, cut addresses that bounce back, and remove individuals who opt out of promotions down the line. The company expects to take a roughly standard 10 percent fee on the list rental price, which Schwedelson put at between $200 and $300 per thousand names.
Schwedelson projects the e-mail list growing to 250,000 names sometime in the first quarter of 2000.
