Marcy Clarke makes no apologies for being one of Southern California's leading junk mailers.
"I'm like most people," she told me. "The mail comes and I sit in front of the trash can and dump most of it. But every so often there's a gem in there that I'm interested in. That's the value of direct mail."
Clarke, 51, is co-owner of a South Los Angeles company called Service Mailers Inc. These days, she sends out about 12 million pieces of mail every month -- brochures, fliers, sales pitches, catalogs. Volume is down about 40% from a year ago.
I made Clarke's acquaintance after posting a video column online talking about how the recession had caused the amount of junk mail sent out last year to fall for the first time in nearly six decades. An even steeper decline is projected this year.
I characterized this in the video as the silver lining to all the dark clouds on the economic horizon.
"Hello, Mr. Uninformed," Clarke responded by e-mail. "You think having less 'junk mail' is good? How about the lost jobs in the direct-mail industry due to this economy? You think lost jobs are good? How about businesses closing due to less 'junk mail'? Is that good too?"
I asked Clarke if we could get together, and she was more than happy to oblige. We met the other day at her company's cavernous processing center on Exposition Place near the future tracks of the Expo Line light rail.
On one side of the building, a group of about a dozen women were hand-stuffing envelopes with brochures for a high-end clothing company. On the other side, a machine was stuffing envelopes with pitches for one of those sneaky "mortgage protection" firms that try to look like they're a government agency.
A huge stack of brochures for a cruise-ship line stood nearby awaiting processing. Boxes of other marketing materials were piled as high as the rafters for future jobs.
It was the junk mail heart of darkness.
Clarke turned out to be a very nice person, and we had something in common: The plight of her advertising-reliant business during one of the ugliest downturns in memory was almost identical to what most newspapers are going through.
"We employed about 80 people last year," she said as we walked past idle envelope-stuffing machines. "Now it's about 45."
Clarke's company pays most of its workers minimum wage. But she said it's one of the few junk mailers in the area to offer health benefits.
