Betrayed By an E-Mail Address

Yesterday, we got an inquiry from someone named "Kathleen Stephens," apparently an ad agency media planner, asking about FOLIO:'s newsletters. Kathleen was from a company called Quality Communications with a Yahoo e-mail address of qualitycommunications@yahoo.com.

"Kathleen" said she was representing a workflow solutions provider looking to target magazines. But we weren't sure because her e-mail address also had "M. Hertzog" on it. We thought that was an interesting coincidence, because our competing magazine, Publishing Executive, has a publisher named Mark Hertzog who might be highly interested in our demographics—enough, perhaps, to make an inquiry under an assumed name.

Below is the e-mail record of our exchange with "Kathleen." We haven't heard back.

From: Brad Herring
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11:54 AM
To: 'M Hertzog'
Cc: Tony Silber
Subject: RE: enewsletters

Hi Kathleen,

Thanks for your prompt response. For some strange reason the name M. Hertzog has appeared in the "from column" of your previous 2 emails. Interestingly enough the Publisher of a competitive magazine (Publishing Executive) also shares this same name...small world.

Anyway, please feel free to give me a call and I will be happy to provide you with some detailed information on our newsletters.

Talk to you soon.

Brad Herring
Regional Sales Manager

-----Original Message-----
From: M Hertzog [mailto:qualitycommunications@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 11:29 AM
To: Brad Herring
Subject: RE: enewsletters

Company that provides workflow solutions -- it wants
to target magazine advertising workflow. What's the
total circ. of Alerts and Publishing Technology?

Kathleen

--- Brad Herring <bherring@red7media.com> wrote:

Thanks for your inquiry. The newsletters are hot
and we're running out of space! Please tell me the
name of your client as well as the type of services
that they provide so that I can make the appropriate
recommendations.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Brad Herring
Regional Sales Manager
-----Original Message-----
From: M Hertzog
[mailto:qualitycommunications@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 9:12 AM
To: Brad Herring
Subject: enewsletters
Brad, we are looking into advertising in
enewsletters for a client (publishing services).

For FOLIO Alerts and FOLIO Publishing Technology:
What is the total circulation?
Is it all opt-in?
Any demographics?
What percentage are subscribers to Folio magazine?
Thanks.
Kathleen Stephens
Media Planning

By Matt Kinsman --

Post Comment / Discuss This Blog - Info/Rules

Trick?

Submitted by Mark Hertzog on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 13:54.

Hey it WAS me! I was trying to get some competitive information but was so dumb I used a Yahoo address that had my name in it! (Thanks for pointing that out to the entire industry, Tony) Next time I will be more stealth. By the way, the circulation of our enewsletter Publishing Executive InBox is about 9,000, and executives can subscribe by going to www.PubExec.com. Mark Hertzog

Busted!

Submitted by Industry Vet on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 14:14.

Come on Mark, I mean Kathleen...oh never mind...you were busted...that's the point.

Just a laugh

Submitted by Matt Kinsman on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 14:27.

I like your response, Mark. We just thought this was funny. Unlike when our job board listings--including our own internal ads--magically appear on a different competitor's site (NOT Publishing Executive).

Thanks

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 14:45.

I waas not aware of Publishing Exec. Looks interesting

Great Job!!!

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 04/28/2008 - 12:53.

Posing as a potential advertiser is a slimy way of trying to get info. Thanks to Matt for calling somebody out for pulling this cheesy trick.