Recession Hits Direct Marketers

B2B Magazine has a new article here on how the recession is hitting direct marketers. I'm calling it "the recession", btw, because it is one. Among the highlights, most of which are very predictable:

• Hiring is down
• Budgets have been cut
• Layoffs are looming or have happened

List are also cheaper, kind of like gasoline. The biggest decline was in Super Premium unleaded, I mean in b-to-b permission-based e-mail lists, which fell to $293 per thousand, down from $305 a year earlier.

I know, it's not really news. On the bright side, strength remains in:

• Catalogs
• Analytics
• Ad sales

The only surprise here is catalogs. I wonder if people are using catalogs more because they're at home more? Seems plausible.