The More Things Change …

Catalogers also must decide whether they are catalog companies or Internet companies. “Today, there are far more Internet companies than catalog companies,” Gaynor says. “It’s much cheaper to be a pure Internet company than to be a catalog company today. With the capital required for a catalog company today — especially with postage going up 26 percent [or more] and paper going up another 7 percent — those entering the business really need to make that decision early on. Is the catalog there to support the Internet, or is the Internet there to support the catalog?”