Forecasters predict a blue year

| MCM staff

In this era of increasing technology and cold impersonality, you might expect the hot colors of the next year to be cold metallics and steely grays. But

Overseas Success Stories

| Mike McKenna

Among the U.S. catalogs mailing overseas, consumer books command most of the media attention. Yet it’s the business-to-business mailers that have made

At Deadline

| MCM staff

GENESIS DIRECT DOWNSIZES After building a stable of more than 30 catalogs over three years, Genesis Direct announced on Feb. 3 that it would sell all

Marketing Benchmark’99

| MCM staff

Catalogers must have taken the phrase “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” to heart. Although the Internet has persuaded some catalogers to alter their

B-to-B spending spree

| MCM staff

Catalogers completed 28 transactions during the fourth quarter of 1998, compared to 29 deals the previous fourth quarter. But whereas business-to-business

Head of the class

| MCM staff

The phrase “school supplies” typically conjures up images of chalkboard erasers and colored construction paper-unless you’re Dan Spalding, chairman/CEO

Cover at deadline

| MCM staff

TEEN APPAREL CATALOG SHUTTERS Just Nikki, a teen apparel catalog launched by retailer Claire’s Stores in February 1998, mailed its last book in mid-November.

Genesis regroups

| Paul Miller

Having spent the better part of its first three years on a catalog-buying binge after raising some $134 million in capital, Genesis Direct has put on

Reaching into retail

| Jack Schmid

Despite their differences, catalogs and retail have always had a close relationship. After all, cataloging sprang from the retail sector in the late 1800s