Radio 4's Media Show reported that The Lady has gone bust. If you think "Who?", that was exactly my thought when they contacted me in 2011. The Lady was a women's magazine founded in 1885, and its last issue has just rolled off the press. Like many other dead-tree publications, the magazine had been struggling for a while and the radio interview with the magazine's editor hinted there were a few juicy controversies that accelerated its collapse. I don't know all the details as I was concentrating on my washing up chore but a quick online search learns that the Daily Fascist is giving the drama plenty of newspaper columns.

The reason they had contacted me in 2011 is that they wanted to write an article about junk mail, and I was the nation's undisputed junk mail expert. They actually wrote quite a nice article, and they were kind enough to send me a copy of the magazine. They presented the story as the start of "The Lady's new campaign", which was obviously a lie — to the best of my knowledge they didn't utter another word about junk mail after publishing the article. But, the piece itself was well-written and quite informative. They mentioned that the plethora of junk mail opt-out schemes in the UK is the result of poor regulation and they even encouraged readers to contact their MP about the issue. The article's practical advice was sound as well. They gave a plug to my Junk Buster website, which was a Flash application that let you contact up to six opt-out services for junk mail and paper directories, and they mentioned Stay Private, which was a similar one-stop-shop for opting out run by Consumer Focus (long since abolished). They even published my telephone number, presumably for those ladies who didn't use the internet (or maybe ladies who had, wisely, uninstalled Flash after Steve Jobs signed its death sentence). I vaguely remember agreeing to them printing my phone number, though I don't remember getting any calls.

I also like the tone of the article. They avoided the term "direct mail", which is the junk mail industry's preferred weasel word for "advertising mail". Most journalists blindly adopt that term, which always triggers me (if you really want to wind me up, ask me how I feel about "direct mail sent to consumers"). Instead, they talked about "adverts" and "mailshots", which are much more neutral terms. All in all, it's one of the few decent press articles about junk mail I've had some involvement in.

So, as far as I'm concerned, it's sad to learn about the demise of The Lady.