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April may have been the cruelest month to T.S. Eliot, but for DMers — especially those that send catalogs — it's May this year.

That's when catalogers will take a serious hit as the new postal rates go into effect. It could put some out of business, as Larry Riggs reports on page 41.

Is there any real hope that the PRC will revise the radical increase it recommended in February? Postal expert Gene Del Polito thinks not — despite the USPS Board of Governors'urgings to do so.

We hope we're all proven wrong by the time you read this. But Gene feels that the language used by the postal board in disputing the PRC's suggestions was way too polite.

And that hardly bodes well.

It could be that the governors' statements to the PRC were sops to an industry that had demanded relief. Either way, the PRC should change its dumb call on this.

Granted, list compiling may not be everyone's favorite activity. It's a rigorous process that requires a fine eye for detail.

But it's more glamorous than you might think, and it has a rich history. Think of R.L. Polk going door to door to compile city directories, and of Lester Martin — the founder of what is now Donnelley Marketing — putting driver's information together in Story County, IA.

This issue of Direct features a roundtable with some modern compilers. One learns by reading it that the game has changed.

In the age of cell phones, telephone white pages no longer suffice as a foundation. Motor vehicle records are out.

Catch up on how it's done today — and the challenges compilers are facing — in our roundtable starting on page 27.