New Owner, New Direction for Berkshire Direct

Allen Jezouit has big plans for Berkshire Direct Inc. Jezouit and a partner (who won't be revealed until next week, he says) purchased the 9-year-old direct-mail company from the Storey family last week.

"We plan on expanding our marketing services to better serve our existing clients and to help local and regional businesses, organizations and nonprofits with their marketing initiatives," said Jezouit.

Jezouit was brought on as vice president of business development last September after four years as marketing director for Redstone Properties and more than 18 years in sales and marketing with Praxair Inc. Since his arrival, he's been moving the company's direct-mail foundation to incorporate multiple platforms for local and national clients.

New services include Web site design and development, Web marketing, mail-fulfillment, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, social media services, video production, television commercials, and a full-service sales and marketing consultancy. The team will provide new types of leads for businesses that once relied on newspapers and direct mail.

"We haven't done much advertising yet, it's all word of mouth, and we're swamped," said Jezouit on Tuesday.
 

Berkshire Direct is an outgrowth of Storey Communication's Gardener's Marketplace, which operated for more than 36 years. Storey Communications, founded by Martha and John Storey of Williamstown, sold the publishing company to Workman Publishing; Berkshire Direct was operated by them and then their son, Matt. The Storeys will continue to collaborate on some projects but Matt Storey will no longer be involved.

Jezouit said he and his yet-to-be-named partner have "both worked for big companies and we're bringing that expertise to small companies."

Local clients include Northern Berkshire Healthcare, MountainOne Financial, Williams College, Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, Williamstown Youth Center, Ioka Valley Farm, Williamstown Physical Therapy, Boston Investor Communications Agency, and New England Landscape and Aquatics. Also on the client list are Camp Dudley YMCA of Westport, N.Y., the longest-running summer camp in the country, National Patient Safety Foundation of Boston and Bucknell (Pa.) University athletics.

"It's definitey mine now and we're just going to grow the heck out it," Jezouit said.

For more information, contact Jezouit at 413-458-1721 or BerkshireDirect.net.

Barrington Shopper Hit With Fair Housing Fines

The Shopper's Guide in Great Barrington got slapped with a $15,000 consent judgment on Monday over some 146 purported discriminatory rental ads. On top of that, the 42-year-old free publication will have to provide $30,000 worth of free advertising to the entity that came after it — the Housing Discrimination Project of Holyoke.

The project, part of the nonprofit Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, complained to Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination that the Shopper had been running rental property advertisements, both print and online, "that unlawfully discriminated based on family status, sex, marital status, receipt of public housing assistance, and disability." The ads had reportedly run between January 2007 and mid-September 2009.

The attorney general's office filed the complaint on Jan. 29; the shopper Superior Court Judge John A. Agostini entered the consent agreement on Monday.

The Raifstanger family run publication is almost all classifieds and touts having the "lowest per column inch rate in the area."

Now it will have to not only offer up free advertising, but also train its staff on the federal Fair Housing Act, sponsor a community fair housing traning for the public and adopt screening-mechanisms to ensure that discriminatory advertisements are not published.

Publications as well as landlords can get in trouble for ads that discriminate against people of any, creed, sex or ethnicity. Just saying "no children" can land you in hot water.

Quality Printing Buys Marketing Franchise

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Quality Printing Co. has acquired a franchise of EZ Local Savings Co., a marketing consultant focusing on small and medium-sized companies.

The franchise covers Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties, Southern Vermont and New York. Kaylin Quadrozzi Choquette, formerly a national sales consultant with Iredale Cosmetics, has been hired as sales manager.

EZ Local Savings' platform is geared toward consulting to local businesses and includes direct mail and online coupon books, e-mail and text marketing, online ordering and print services.

Local businesses place ads or coupons in the books, which are distributed, free of charge, to residential addresses within a specific area and community. Books have been mailed out in the Pittsfield area and additional books will be published in other territories in Berkshire County in 2010.

Choquette earned her bachelor of science degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 2003. She will handle all of Berkshire County, Southern Vermont and Rensselaer County, N.Y. For further information: 413-358-0538 or kchoquette@ezlocalsavings.com.