The DMA Circulation Hall of Fame Award

The DMA Circulation Hall of Fame Award each year recognizes an individual, elected by his or her peers, who has contributed significantly to the circulation industry. The award is presented at The DMA's annual Circulation Day. This year it was held on February 3, 2009 at the Marriott Marquis, New York, NY.

2009 Winner:

2009-Pete Pedersen, formerly Executive Director of Sales Development, Publishers Clearing House

Pete Pedersen began his long association with circulation at Time Inc’s Life magazine. He subsequently served as Vice President of Life Circulation Company and its successor companies. Pete is a graduate of Syracuse University majoring in Journalism and Political Science. Forgoing those two career fields he opted for a job paying $10 a week more than that of an upstate New York cub reporter and spent two years working in consumer finance. Following a short stay in Temple Texas, Pete decided that neither consumer finance, nor Central Texas were to his liking and that brought him back to New York and Time Inc. Shortly after he joined Time Inc. the U.S. Army beckoned and Pete spent two years on active duty, stationed in Washington, DC and with the 25th. Infantry Division in Cu Chi, Vietnam.

Pete joined Publishers Clearing House in 1979 as Executive Director of Sales Development and was responsible for testing and developing what became the Power Line, PCH’s telemarketing arm. For 25 years, as Executive Director, he headed up the company’s publisher relations activities with more than 600 publisher clients in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Upon retirement from PCH in August Pete formed PedersenDirect, a consultancy specializing in client and supplier relationships. He also serves as a consultant for Palm Coast Data, an information and fulfillment provider for publishers and membership organizations headquartered in Palm Coast Florida.

Pete was a Board Director of FMA and the XYZ Club. He is a frequent industry speaker for the DMA, CMA, FMA and as a lecturer at NYU’s School of Continuing Education. He was inducted into the FMA Hall of Fame in September.

Past Winners

Susan M. Allyn, Hearst Magazines
In December, 2008, Susan Allyn joined Hearst Magazines as VP, Customer Acquisition. Prior to that Susan had been with TV Guide as Vice President Circulation Marketing since 2005. She was responsible for guiding the consumer marketing for the new incarnation of TV Guide and overseeing the outsourcing of the in-house fulfillment system to a new vendor.

Prior to joining TV Guide, Susan was Consumer Marketing Director at Emap-Metro. There she worked on ten of the Action Sports Group magazines. She was part of the launch team for Emap and was responsible for the circulation launch of FHM. From 1994 to 1997, Susan was Director of Consumer Marketing for all four Wenner Media titles; Rolling Stone, Us Magazine, Men’s Journal and Family Life. During her tenure, she was responsible for major rate base increases on all four of these Wenner titles. In addition, Susan has served in a variety of circulation and marketing positions at Time, Inc., Knapp Communications Corp., Weight Watchers Magazine and ABC Publishing. Susan has been a member of the MPA’s Consumer Marketing Committee since 1983 and served as their 1993 Chairperson. She has served on the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ Magazine Director’s Advisory Committee for 19 years.

2007-Liberta Abbondante, Wall Street Journal
Liberta Abbondante, Vice President, Circulation Marketing, for The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com, Barron’s and Barron’s Online joined Dow Jones in 2004. In this position, she is responsible for managing the Journal’s 1.7MM daily circulation, 300k Barron’s weekly circulation and nearly 900k+ customers to WSJ.com and Barron’s Online. She has brought strong leadership to the circulation marketing team and provides ongoing direction and professional guidance. Ms. Abbondante, who began her publishing career at Macfadden Publishing, was Vice-President, Circulation, at Forbes Inc. where she was responsible for all subscription and retail sales activities for Forbes magazine, Forbes Global, American Heritage Magazine Group, and the Forbes Investment Newsletters. Just prior to her current station, Liberta was Vice-President, Circulation, at Elsevier where she was responsible for the subscription marketing and sales activities for nearly 300 medical journals.

If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Merizio Smith at the DMA, (212) 790-1567.

back to top

© Direct Marketing Association | Privacy Statement | Site Map | Share