A Compliment From Left Field

A t The Green Sheet we tend to see ourselves as a small newsletter publisher in a niche market. We work hard to serve the ISO community and truly appreciate our loyal readership. We don't have the circulation of a major consumer magazine, but our readership is very respectable for an independent newsletter.

Sometimes compliments come out of left field. Still, they can give you a fresh perspective on how your enterprise is viewed in the marketplace.

One of our standard features in The Green Sheet, both print and online, is our "Datebook." This ongoing listing of trade shows and events in our industry is published as a service to ISOs. On our Web site we include direct links to the Web sites for the various events. These have included meetings for NACHA, the ETA and any other trade show we believe will be of interest to our readership.

Recently, Thomson Financial, sponsor of Card Forum & Expo, sent a press release about its show to The Green Sheet. We responded that it would be added to our listing. We then received an offer of a co-marketing agreement. This seemed liked a great opportunity.

We agreed to provide Card Forum with two full-page ads in future issues, an online ad and inclusion of its brochure with a GS mailing. This ad package costs $3,700 on our current rate card.

In exchange, GS was to receive our logo and a link posted to the Card Forum Web site, distribution of GS at the show, an ad in the forum documentation, and a one-time-use set of labels of the attendee list.

We believed this was an equitable arrangement and looked forward to finding mutually beneficial ways of working with Thomson Financial. Unfortunately, the publisher of Credit Card Management did not see it that way.

Thirteen days after signing the marketing agreement, we received an e-mail message from Thomson Financial stating, " ... The Green Sheet is a direct competitor of Credit Card Management, and because Credit Card Management supports the Card Forum & Expo, I was told ... to terminate our agreement."

We've always known that a large percentage of our readership also reads CCM, which is published by a much larger organization than The Green Sheet, Inc. We believe it is a significant compliment that they view us as a "direct competitor."

We are always striving to better serve the ISOs with our publications and services. We appreciate that you have continued to push us to higher levels of professionalism and success. As always, we want to hear from our readers - your raves and requests. Here, we just wanted to share the moment!