Profit picture: up and down

| Mark Del Franco

Anumber of direct mailers showed huge fluctuations in first-quarter earnings, both up (Delia’s, Blair) and down (Damark, CML Group).Of the 26 publicly

People

| MCM staff

Tracy Keller joined Team Paradise, a catalog of inline skating equipment, as marketing manager. She will manage promotional activities and advertising.Barnesandnoble.com

Saks sold to retail chain

| Lynn Dougherty

Less than two weeks after announcing that it was exploring “strategic alternatives,” upscale retailer Saks Holdings was sold to retail chain Proffitt’s

Rate hike delayed

| Paul Miller

In a victory for mailers, the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors (BOG) on June 30 said it would not implement new postal rates until Jan. 10, 1999.

Rediscovering’ parcel post

| Paul Miller

When the postal rate case is implemented in January 1999, parcel post rates may actually decrease for catalogers that drop-ship their packages into destination

A good year for paper

| Shannon Oberndorf

It looks like paper prices will remain steady throughout 1998, despite rumblings this past spring of a July 1 and an Oct. 1 increase. But catalogers can

Putting its properties to work

| Paul Miller

Following New England Business Service’s (NEBS) year-and-a-half acquisition spree, which resulted in the purchase of a total of four catalogs, and culminated

People

| MCM staff

Fingerhut Companies named William Lansing, currently vice president of business development for General Electric Corp., as president. He will focus on