DM News: List Firms Debate E-Mail Pricing Approaches

Email list brokers who went to cost-per-action deals in the past few years have mostly succumbed to the temptation to over-use those lists. As a result, they've burned out the inventory at exactly the time when cost per thousand impressions (CPM) deals are now losing their attraction due to problems with getting a high percentage of those emails delivered past various forms of spam filters. These factors are among those pushing list buyers to ask for a cost-per-delivered-impression, putting the liabilities of delivery failures and list burnout on the party that can do something about it.