Marketers must not abandon tried and tested methods of getting their message across just because new channels are emerging, it has been claimed.

According to Steven Dodds, senior planner with marketing firm DMS, direct mail still has a lot to offer despite the advent of the internet and social media.

Although budgets are tighter and this has led to some firms looking for “shorter payback periods” when it comes to marketing, Mr Dodds believes that direct mail is far from dead.

He urged marketers to respond to the shift by working smarter.

Mr Dodd said: “We are recommending increased focus on mail targeting, through improved modelling and other methods to ensure returns through the channel hold up.”

Many people respond to mail shots via the internet and this is something else marketers should bear in mind, he added.

Yesterday, Sandra Zoratti, vice-president of global solutions marketing at InfoPrint, urged professionals to ensure their marketing messages are relevant to the consumers they are sent to no matter what format is used.

People who receive uninteresting messages are likely to end a relationship with the brand behind them, she stated.

Posted by John Lynes.

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Can this man be trusted? James Ellroy in 2006 at the Venice film festival premiere of The Black Dahlia. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

About 20 of us were ushered along the quiet, institutional corridors of the BBC’s Bush House. Following a security guard past an empty barber shop, a deserted cafe bar, up stairs and down hallways, we eventually arrived at a small reception area. There, we were offered glasses of wine and a tray of nuts and snacks. We stood in circles, offering small talk. It felt a little like the Ministry of Truth’s Christmas Party.

We were there to discuss James Ellroy’s American Tabloid as part of the BBC’s World Service Book Club; a chance for readers from around the globe to ask some of the best modern writers about their novels. We funnelled in. Ellroy was already there, sitting on a dais, dressed casually – khaki jumper with suede elbow pads, chinos and surprisingly fashionable shoes – more geography teacher on a field trip than “the demon dog, the foul owl with the death growl”.

But there was nothing ordinary about Ellroy’s voice. Deep, rhythmic and gruff, his voice imbued the opening passage from American Tabloid with such ferocity and menace it was pure visceral theatre. all arms and finger-pointing invective, Ellroy brought his novel to life better than any writer I’ve seen. (You can hear him speak on a recent Guardian podcast here.)

American Tabloid remains Ellroy’s masterpiece: one the great novels of the latter half of the 20th century. It’s a graphic, kinetic, strangely moving portrait of the years leading up to the Kennedy assassination, full of blood, fire and devilish humour. It was this novel we were here to discuss, but soon its sequel, The cold Six Thousand, was mentioned – a novel that despite several attempts, I’ve never managed to penetrate beyond the first 50 pages. It’s the gunfire short sentences that get me every time. I can sort of see the reason for such rat-a-tat-tat prose as “He ran a kitchen-help union. He rigged low pay. He had coin. He had pull.” but it’s just so relentless. And I suspected that Ellroy would have short shrift for those who found it too much to bear. instead, he simply admitted that he had made a mistake, taken his style too far. It was both a surprising and fascinating admission.

Authors often reject or distance themselves from their first novels – Haruki Murakami, for example, still refuses to publish Hear the Wind Sing in a freely available English translation – but to do so of a book that was both a critical and commercial success is almost unheard of. what further complicates the issue is that The cold Six Thousand is the middle book in an ambitious trilogy. is the legacy of that body of work, therefore, damaged by the author’s opinion that the middle volume is not of the same high standard of the other two?

Personally, I don’t think so. Ellroy’s stylistic misgivings may have given me a justifiable pass straight from American Tabloid to the concluding part of the trilogy, Blood’s a Rover, but that doesn’t mean that readers should just ignore The cold Six Thousand. After all, authors and artists aren’t necessarily the best judges of their own work – during the recording, Ellroy admitted, with his tongue not quite in his cheek, that when he finished The cold Six Thousand he considered it to be the best book ever written …

As we left Ellroy recording some milder exclamations to paper over his occasional profanities, I wondered whether he would like to be able to do the same with The cold Six Thousand; to revise and reinterpret that novel. Authors from Jeffrey Archer and Joyce Carol Oates have done this, but it’s always seemed to me a bit like cheating. Ellroy remains one of the most important, influential and innovative of American writers – and the “failed” experiment of The cold Six Thousand is as much part of his legacy as the tightly controlled and consistently powerful American Tabloid. Whatever his opinion of the work, it is always up to the reader to judge – even if they are in complete agreement.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:54 AM

Confidence numbers getting jobbed

It’s been a morning of unenthusiastic reactions to luekwarm U.S. economic reports. why break the string just because one very important one beat expectations?

The Conference Board’s index of U.S. consumer confidence came in at 49.5, up from an upwardly revised 48.7 last month and a couple of notches higher than the consensus estimate of 47.5. It’s the first uptick in the Conference Board’s index in three months.

That’s good news, right? Heading into the all-important Christmas shopping season, a smile is beginning to creep onto shoppers’ faces, isn’t it?

Well, based on the market’s response to the data, maybe not so much.

After getting an initial pop from the report, the major North American indexes have returned to waffling back and forth in modestly negative territory. The Dow Jones industrial average was off about 50 points, the S&P/TSX composite off 30 points.

Where’s the problem?

Much of it lies in consumers’ nagging doubts about jobs – still the biggest economic overhang for the market. The difference in the percentage of people saying jobs are hard to get (49.8 per cent) versus those saying they are plentiful (3.2 per cent) widened to its biggest gap in 26 years.

Another key is that the gains in the consumer confidence index all came in the “expectations” segment, while consumers’ sentiment on the “present situation” actually slipped slightly. At a thin 21.0, the present-situation reading is at a new 26-year low.

Historically, the stock market has tracked the present-situation reading pretty closely, while showing little correlation with the expectations component. from that perspective, the modest improvement in the consumer confidence index is coming from all the wrong places for stocks.

MILWAUKEE – The holiday shopping season is upon us, but just because toys are on the store shelf doesn’t mean they’re safe to buy, according to a Wisconsin advocacy group.

In the 24th annual Survey of Toy Safety, the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group has compiled a list of what they call “troubled toys”.

The list has shows a seemingly benign pre-school children’s book, which advocates claim has too much lead on it.

Or there’s a Toy story figurine. Advocates say it’s too small and is a choking hazard.

But if you run into this, experts claim there’s an easy test parents can do to make sure toys are safe for their little ones.

“We believe if a toy fits in this toilet paper roll, it’s too small for small children,” said Johanna Lathrop, toy safety advocate.

Click on this wispirg.org for a complete list of toys in question. if you don’t see the toys right away, the advocacy group says it will be up by Tuesday afternoon.

You can also access the list on your phone by clicking on toysafety.mobi.

WBA WORLD LIGHT-WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: Amir Khan v Dmitriy Salita
Venue: Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle Date: Saturday, 5 December (Fight expected to begin about 2300 GMT) Coverage: Sky Sports and full commentary on BBC Radio 5 live

Dmitriy Salita says he intends to take advantage of WBA light-welterweight champion Amir Khan’s vulnerable chin when the pair meet on 5 December.

In the bout at the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle, Ukrainian-born Salita wants to follow Breidis Prescott’s example from 2008 by knocking out Khan.

“His chin is definitely an area of vulnerability,” Salita told BBC Sport.

“It’s not just because of Prescott that he’s vulnerable. He has been knocked down a whole bunch of other times.”

The 22-year-old has been floored three times in his career, with Willie Limond and Michael Gomez exposing his vulnerability before his stunning defeat by Prescott last year.

Khan was knocked out by Prescott in stunning fashion, suffering the first defeat of his 22-fight career in Manchester in 2008.

The Olympic silver medallist was beaten inside 60 seconds by Prescott but has bounced back from that loss.

Since then the Bolton fighter has moved to Los Angeles to team up with revered trainer Freddie Roach in the same gym as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao.

Salita – who is unbeaten in 31 fights, with 16 knockouts – will be the opponent for Khan’s first defence of the WBA title he won in July after beating Andreas Kotelnik in Manchester.

It is a step up in class for Salita but the 27-year-old feels it is Khan who will have the nagging doubts going into the fight.

“He definitely has a seed of doubt because of the Prescott defeat,” said Salita, who is based in Brooklyn, new York.

“Making the move to Freddie was a smart move and helped him win the belt but I’m going to go in there to do my work and eventually he is going to get hit on the chin.

“When he is, we’ll see what happens. He’s been beaten before and he’s going to get beaten by me.”

Salita, who is nicknamed the Star of David because of his Jewish roots, still feels a sense of injustice that it was not him who faced Kotelnik earlier in the year when he was the WBA’s mandatory challenger.

However, in December he intends to make up for lost time and return home a world champion.

“I am bitter, I feel I should have had that opportunity and it didn’t come. So I’m hungry to take my chance now that is finally here,” stated Salita.

“I look forward to beating him. I have to be on my A-game and be very sharp. I need to stick to the game plan we have in place and with all the things we have worked on I feel it will be enough to take the belt.”

So confident of victory is Salita that he says he will try to tempt Manchester’s Ricky Hatton into one last fight if he beats Khan, who has 15 knockouts from his 21 victories.

“I’m focused on 5 December but in the future I’d definitely like a shot at Hatton,” added Salita.

“He tipped Khan to beat me so there is extra incentive there.

“Hatton is one of the living legends of our time, a great boxer.

“He beat one of my heroes Kostya Tszyu, who is an incredible fighter. It would be awesome to fight him.”

Baroness Kinnock, British Minister of State, will pay a visit to the just because Foundation and Mamatoto’s birthing centre during her visit to Trinidad and Tobago for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The Baroness, who will be representing the United Kingdom at the forthcoming Commonwealth Foreign Ministers’ meeting, is expected to arrive in the country tomorrow and leave on November 29.

A release from the British High Commission said: ‘The Minister will visit Mamatoto’s birthing centre in Belmont to meet the mothers and fathers who receive the unique help and advice offered by the only facility of its kind in Trinidad.

‘The Minister will also be spending time at the inspirational just because Foundation to see first-hand their remarkable transformation of a disused wing of Mt Hope Hospital into a holistic therapeutic children’s ward.’

Mamatoto is committed to establishing a community-based, accessible equitable and innovative childbirth centre. The organisation offers comprehensive counselling education and support during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period in a freestanding birth centre.

Although the clues might be right in front of them, investigators don’t have any easier time solving car arsons than intentionally set fires in houses or in the wild. They’re all notoriously difficult.

“It’s not entirely a science. A lot of it is. but you have to be careful about what you assume and what you commit yourself to,” said Victor Massenkoff, a fire investigator with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District who is looking into a spate of fires since Oct. 31 in El Sobrante, San Pablo and Richmond.

Car fires are usually contained in the compartment in which they are started. but vehicles can become fully engulfed within six minutes, burning up any evidence that could lead to the point of origin.

“One thing that makes vehicles more difficult is that the fuel package of a vehicle is so much more great,” Massenkoff said. “There’s so many plastics and hydrocarbon-based products, and they all burn. There’s a very high amount of heat released. you may not have a lot of material left.”

Arson investigators apply the same principles as they do when investigating larger fires. Even with an entire home or thousands of acres of brush destroyed, authorities can “read the fire pattern” and find the area where a blaze started.

Investigators don’t assume that car arsonists are motivated by anything different from what motivates those who torch structures or vegetation. Fire experts, however, said the potential for a gas tank exploding and windows shattering can appeal to a spectacle-craving arsonist.

Thrill of seeing destruction

Whether the targets are cars, houses or wildlands, many arsonists get a thrill from watching the results of their work and the emergency response that follows, said Candice DeLong, a former FBI profiler and psychiatric nurse.

“Part of the whole arson issue is, it’s like crying – if no one’s around to see you cry, then why bother?” DeLong said. “If no one’s around to see the fire, it still might be kind of fun, but it’s a whole lot more fun to see the firemen come, to hear sirens, to see people running around and going, ‘Oh my gosh, look at that!’ “

in San Francisco, speculation has abounded over exactly how one or more arsonists moved quickly from one fire to another in a series of blazes centered around Geary Boulevard. in west Contra Costa County, geography has also appeared to be a factor, with many of the car arsons taking place around San Pablo Dam Road.

May not live nearby

Investigators caution that arsonists don’t necessarily live near where they are setting fires.

“We have to look at the characteristics of the area and the circumstances surrounding every individual incident,” said Massenkoff, a former arson investigator with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Vallejo Police Department. “It’s not just because they’re in the same area, not just because they’re at night and not just because they’re cars.

“It’s part science, it’s part experience,” Massenkoff said. “There’s science to it, but there’s a lot of variables.”

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.

Posted by unregistered user at 11/20/09 4:14 p.m.

Urgent!! Robert Reich on your healthcare bit.ly/SAQ7a

Why A Strong Public Option is Essential – by jacksmith – Working Class

Robert Reich explains the pubic option: bit.ly/dDYSJ

Hollywood Supports The Public Option bit.ly/3XLwPi

Beautiful HEATHER GRAHAM bit.ly/12sRYD

It’s not just because more than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 77% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (86% of democrats, 75% of independents, and 72% republicans). Basically everyone.

It’s not just because according to a new AARP POLL: 86 percent of seniors want universal healthcare security for all, including 93% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 78% of Republicans. with 79% of seniors supporting creating a new strong Government-run public option plan, available immediately. Including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans, STUNNING!!

It’s not just because it will lower cost. Because a strong public option will dramatically lower cost for everyone. And dramatically improved the quality of care everyone receives in America and around the World. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

It’s not just because it will save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions more of YOU, caused by a rush to profit by the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!

It’s not just because every expert in every field, including economist, and Nobel laureates all agree that free market based healthcare systems don’t work. never have and never will. The US has the only truly free market based healthcare system in the World. And as you all know now, IT IS A DISASTER!

It’s not just because providing or denying medically necessary care for profit motivations is wrong. Because it is WRONG! It’s professionally, ethically, and morally REPUGNANT!, Animalistic, VILE and EVIL.

THE REASON THE PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL:

The public option is ESSENTIAL because over 200 million of you are trapped in the forest of the wolves. which is the forest of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! with no way out except through needless inhumane suffering, and DEATH. while the wolves tear at your flesh, and rip you limb from lib. Then feast on your lifeless bodies like a dead carcase for transplant parts.

At the most vulnerable times of your lives (when you were sick and hurting), millions of you have had to fight and loose cruel, but heroic battles. Fighting against the big guns of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! in the forest of the wolves. all because you have no place else to go. You have no other CHOICE!

But the PUBLIC OPTION will give you someplace safe to go. And it will give us someplace safe to take you. The public option will be your refugium (your refuge). Where the wolves cannot get at you when your down, hurting, and vulnerable. Where everyone who needs it can find rest, security, comfort and the care they need. Protected by the BIG GUNS of we The People of The United States. THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE AND COUNTRY ON EARTH.

This is why it is so critical that we do not lead another 50 million vulnerable, uninsured Americans into the forest of the wolves, without the protections of a Strong Government-run MEDICARE like public option. we The People of The United States MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN to any more of our fellow Americans. if healthcare reform does not contain a strong MEDICARE like public option on day one. YOU MUST! KILL IT. or you will do far more harm than good. And millions more will die needlessly. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.

To those who would continue to obstruct good and true healthcare reform for the American people, and who seek to trap millions more vulnerable Americans in the forest of the wolves. we will continue to fight you. we are prepared to wage all out war against you, and will eagerly DESTROY! you. Time…is…UP! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! No Co-op’s! No Triggers! NO INDIVIDUAL MANDATES! without a Strong MEDICARE like public option on day one.

Healthcare reform can be the GREATEST! Accomplishment of our time and century. A time when future generations may say of us, that we were all, AMERICAS GREATEST GENERATIONS.

I therefore call on all my fellow Americans and the peoples of the World. to join us in this fight so that we may finish becoming the better America that we aspire to be for everyone.

I have been privileged to be witness as many of you fought, and struggled to take your first breath, and your last breath on this earth. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Life is precious.

Whatever the cost. WE! MUST SUCCEED.

God Bless You my Fellow Human Beings

jacksmith – Working Class

ATTENTION!! Congress Has The Votes Needed to Pass A Public Option – TODAY bit.ly/TCq7O

Things You can Do to Help NOW! everydaycitizen.com/2009/09/tired_of_watching_people_die_n.html

A majority of voters would rather have a Democrats only bill with a Public Option. than a bipartisan bill without a Public Option.

A state based insurance plan is NOT!! a Public Option. nor is it a Strong, National, Medicare like Public Option.

No Triggers! huffingtonpost.com/jason-rosenbaum/a-trigger-for-the-public_b_277910.html

Triggers huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/weve-seen-these-triggers_b_283583.html

Krugman on heathcare (krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/)

Senator Bernie Sanders on healthcare (youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)

John Garamendi on the Public Option and the Grassroots: bit.ly/TJMty

Howard Dean on the Public Option youtube.com/watch?v=8SKfW2dUnow&feature=player_embedded

We’re Number 37! in quality of health care youtube.com/watch?v=yVgOl3cETb4&feature=player_embedded

Twitter search (#welovethenhs #NHS #hc09 #hcr #healthcar #obama #p2 #topprog #) Check it out.

Poor old J- and -edward, they can’t do a thing right. Just because they aren’t the best singers in the X-Factor finals doesn’t mean they can’t entertain us! actually, the reason they can’t entertain us is because they aren’t the best entertainers in the finals either.

Maybe I’m being unfair. they try hard. they dance and rap and sing one-and-a-half-part harmonies. And it’s hard to make yourself heard when the backing tape is that loud. but they seem to enjoy themselves, and they keep coming back for more. And the audience keeps coming back for more too, so everyone is happy, especially Mr Cowell. Don’t tell me the results are fixed – it’s just that John and Edward get marked by the judges on a sliding scale. Similar to the one they sing to.

They may look like Harry Enfield’s Double-Take Brothers, but they still command a huge following from the teenage girls and soppy mums brigade. Add to that the George Michael Wham! factor and I think we can expect a few more soppy mums to vote for them this weekend. oh, and Gordon Brown says he thinks they’re very good.

OK, so they probably won’t win in the end. by the time the votes for ‘male singer’ and ‘female singer’ have been concentrated down on to the last few finalists there won’t be many left for ‘quirky group’. Still, they’ve probably done enough to get a recording deal, although obviously they won’t be allowed to release anything before Christmas to compete with the shoe-in X-Factor Number one.

Maybe in March we’ll see some kind of novelty cover version of a classic rock number – think Rolf doing Stairway to Heaven – and we’ll get Jedward mania all over again. And don’t rule out the John and Edward promo video starring BGT finalists Stavros Flatley as backing dancers. oh, the Jedward stage is coming on over the hill . . .

Make Roy’s day – rate this story with the stars, they’re just down there!

Liberal Groups Wary of Reid Bill

As centrist Senate Dems study Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid’s health care bill, some liberal groups are unhappy at some of the bill’s provisions.

AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka praised Reid’s bill as the “strongest steps yet” toward bringing down the cost. But, he said, the bill still includes an excise tax that would hit expensive health care plans, including many that cover union workers.

“We continue to believe that a tax on working families’ benefits is the wrong way to finance health care and we will work hard to eliminate this provision as the bill heads to the floor,” Trumka said in a statement. “[T]he bill is not perfect.”

Some liberal bloggers, too, expressed disappointment. in a statement posted on the popular FireDogLake blog, Jane Hamsher called it “encouraging” that Reid included the public option but criticized an opt-out provision that would let states drop the public plan.

“[T]he addition of a state opt-out provision threatens to leave millions of Americans at the mercy of private insurance monopolies, with the federal government acting as enforcers for a product with no competition to keep prices down,” she wrote. “It is time to acknowledge that the Senate process is broken and undemocratic, and is working against the interests of the American people.”

But the bill has gotten a largely positive reception from Dem-leaning groups. Americans United for Change, one of the key organizations involved in pressuring members of Congress to move the bill, acknowledged that it isn’t perfect but said they were happy with the progress.

“Of course there are things that can be improved, but it’s extremely exciting to be beginning the amendment process — and ultimately the conference process — with a bill that includes a strong public health insurance option and one that ensures that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care,” said Jeremy Funk, the group’s communications director.

Liberals in the House have threatened to derail reform over some provisions during the last several months, but the Dem caucus in the Senate has been much more focused on centrist members than on liberals. Still, at least seven liberals met with Reid, Dem Whip Dick Durbin and Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) on Monday, seeking assurances about the public option.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), one of the liberals at the meeting in Reid’s office, released a statement 11/18 offering virtually unqualified support for Reid’s plan. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), another liberal involved in the discussions, said in his own statement that he was concerned about several aspects of the bill.

“While the Senate bill contains some excellent provisions, the middle class must be assured that there are strong cost-containment provisions, that it is affordable and that it is paid for in a fair and equitable way,” Sanders said.

(REID WILSON)