Meet the Broker: Michael C. Heaney

Today we meet Michael C. Heaney, vice president in the list brokerage division at Millard Group Inc. Heaney has been a list broker since 1992, and traces his career in the list business back to the Direct Marketing Association's List Day in 1987.

For several years he worked in conference department at the DMA where he managed that event, the predecessor of the annual List Vision conference.

"All my early networking was with list people and that's how I found myself in the list business," said Heaney.

He left the DMA for his first list brokerage job at Kleid Co., and landed on his feet at Millard, not long after Kleid folded in bankruptcy.

Most of his experience involves consumer magazine circulation and fundraising. He does brokerage work for such firms as Conde Nast, Time Inc., Kiplinger, Primedia, North Shore Animal League and the National Wildlife Federation.

Heaney is married and has two daughters, 12 and 9, and a six-year-old son. One of his favorite family activities is hiking in the New Hampshire woods.

He keeps busy evenings and weekends coaching children's basketball, soccer and T-Ball teams. "I'm on a field or court year round either with my own kids or someone else's," Heaney said.

He celebrated his 40th birthday participating in a four-day survival hike with eight other adults—with almost no food or water. "We did find some berries and (the hike leaders) gave us one banana a day and a half into it and then a cup of oatmeal 12 hours before the end of the hike."

It was an "amazing life experience" that taught us how important it is to live in the moment and embrace what life brings, he said. "We all spend too much time fretting about the past and worrying about future."

What big challenges do list brokers face in the consumer magazine market?

"It's the shrinking pool of names and magazines need to maintain a certain circulation rate base," said Heaney. "Fewer lists and smaller quantities of names are available."

Counts for numerous old-line "core" publishing company lists have declined as many magazines have reduced circulations slightly in recent years, he said. And, direct mail campaigns tend to be getting smaller and more targeted, and publishers are relying less on agencies to deliver new subscribers.

Likewise, the volume of new publishing lists coming on the market has diminished. Fewer new magazine files are available for variety of reasons, according to Heaney.

• Publishers seem more reluctant to put new magazine lists on the market compared to past years.
• Fewer new magazine titles are being launched compared to recent years.
• The lifespan for newly launched magazines may be getting shorter. Sometimes magazines are discontinued before the circulation list ever comes on the market.

For publishers it has become more difficult to maintain a circulation rate base using only lists from other magazines. This means brokers need to find viable alternatives with insert media, catalog lists, compiled lists, statistical modeling and using data more creatively, he said.

Buyers lists offer many ways to find new subscribers by identifying affinities between catalog, direct response TV or other types of customers with existing magazine subscribers, and then targeting with specific list selections and package insert programs.

Compiled lists are another alternative when appropriate selections are available, particularly when data has been overlaid to enhance the files.

"Recommendations from brokers to publishers are being populated more with catalog lists and database files, but you have to understand how they're built before you test them," added Heaney.


How has list brokerage changed during your career?

"Brokers are working harder now. None of the brokers who had 20 years experience when I was just starting would agree with me," said Heaney. "But it's true. Brokers absolutely are working harder."

Nowadays, being successful in this field requires more than finding lists to recommend for testing. "I used to just be the list guy, but now brokers have to be marketers. The definition has changed. List brokers have evolved to become customer brokers," he said.

Know someone you'd like to suggest for Meet the Broker? E-mail Jim Emerson at jim.emerson@penton.com