Good News and Sad News

This issue of Direct has its usual share of flaming commentary, case histories and best practices articles. But it also has a couple of things that are a little more personal.

One is the coverage from New Orleans by Richard H. Levey and Jonathan Boorstein.

The first hint I had that this project was under way was when Richard announced he was going on vacation. This is something that happens every few years at most.

As it turned out, he planned to combine two of his great loves — direct marketing and New Orleans — to produce, with Jonathan, the package that starts on page 40.

Why would he use his vacation to do this? As he put it, he wanted to “give something back” to the city.

The package contains several DM case histories and other marketing intelligence, along with photos shot by Richard. One of my favorites (and also one of the most hopeful): that of Direct Media founder Dave Florence enjoying powdered beignets at Café du Monde.

Richard came away personally affected by it. During the trip, he spoke to people who had lost everything. Yet there they were, showing up for work every day. He predicts that the recovering city will become “a very interesting direct marketing laboratory.” And he will discuss this in a speech on post-Katrina DM in a session sponsored by the Advertising Club of New Orleans on April 18.

Speaking of what Richard does on his time off, we should mention that his first book for children, “Dust Bowl! The 1930s Black Blizzards” has been selected as one of the Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. He's about to publish his second book for kids, on archaeology and ancient China, with National Geographic.

In this issue, we also report the sad news that two special friends have departed from the scene: Jerry Ballinger and Bob Castle.

I worked with Jerry for more than 10 years at DM News, and knew him long before that. He was one of the most fair and accurate reporters I've ever met, and a close personal friend.

He had many, many friends, both in and out of direct marketing.

The loss of Bob Castle also hits hard. I met Bob during my earliest days covering DM, and his very presence convinced me that this was going to be a great beat. Where else would you find so funny, brilliant and nice a man?

I hope we don't have to do any more obits in a hurry.