Since 1981, the year I started freelancing for DM News, the bulk of my work has been focused on marketing–direct marketing to be precise. In those days, direct marketing was a business backwater, but it soon evolved into a global phenomenon. I covered this, first as a reporter assigned to the crime beat, then as editor of DM News. In 1994, I jumped to Cowles Business Media, where Hershel Sarbin and I created Direct Newsline, an early online daily, and I served as editor of Direct magazine. By the time I left in 2009, I was running several publications and a robust webinar and email newsletter program. I now write and edit Email Marketing Daily for MediaPost. And I have created content for companies  like IBM/Netezza, Aimia, KBM and Edith Roman. Earlier in my career, I freelanced for The New York Times Magazine, High Times and a host of men’s magazines, and collaborated on satire for the National Lampoon. And during my apprenticeship, I wrote for the East Village Other, Berkeley Barb, New York Free Press, Soho Weekly News and other underground newspapers.