Happy Birthday! The Green Sheet Turns 25!

The Green Sheet 2.0 :: GS Online

Editor's Note:  When I read that Paul Green's "Green Sheet" was turning 25 this week, first, I couldn't believe it and second, I had to post about it.  I've been receiving the Green Sheet since 1996...that's a dozen years already! Whether you're in the payments industry or not, The Green Sheet is a great publication.  Paul Green has done a tremendous job with the magazine through the years.  And there's no denying what it is when you see one lying on someone's office desk, with it's trademark all green color.  Heck of a branding strategy too. 

He featured one of the company's I co-started  with a Mr. Craig Tims, Hot Off The Press: Merchant's Getting P.A.I.D. which I aptly named P.A.I.D (an acronym for Payment Authorized Instantly Debited).  I say aptly because it converted a potentially very bouncy paper check into a "one-time/real-time" debit transaction.  Yes, that was back before banks figured out how much money they'd make by approving transactions in DDA accounts that didn't contain sufficient funds and then charging $30+ bucks a pop to their customers. 

Back then, the way it worked was if there wasn't enough money in the account to pay for the transaction the EFT networks  actually declined the transaction due to insufficient funds...or approved them which guaranteed the merchant they would "Get P.A.I.D"   Easiest Sale Pitch in the world.  Want to Get P.A.I.D?  Should've never sold it to Pay By Touch.  Should've just included the CheckElect/RCK biz in the sale and  kept that one.   

Ironically, and I say ironically, because throughout the years, not too many companies have been  a "Featured Company"...not even Pay By Touch made the grade...The Green Sheet also did a "Company Profile on HomeATM, which you can find here:  Homing in on E-Commerce

GS always makes for interesting reading and I looked and continue to look forward to every issue...especially the Quarterly's. (I like the colors!) So Happy 25th Birthday to The Green Sheet and congratulations to Mr. Paul Green!

The Green Sheet turns 25

he Green Sheet celebrates its 25th anniversary this month. Said like that, you wonder where the time went.

It all began in October 1983 when payments industry pioneer Paul H. Green founded The Green Sheet as a four-page monthly newsletter produced by a staff of two. It was reproduced on a copy machine and distributed to American Marketing Corp. (Amcor) sales reps as a resource and tool to support them at their jobs.

Remember, Amcor was the first  ISO in the United States, founded by Paul in 1982. With the vision of building a network of ISOs across the nation, Amcor was also the first Super ISO. In its first year of operation, Amcor sold $1.5 billion – yes, with a "b" – of new bankcard business.  Paul's position within the payments industry and his passion for the craft of honest selling made him ideally suited to deliver timely news and opinion about the industry.

As with most overnight successes, it took almost 10 years before The Green Sheet expanded its readership base beyond Amcor reps to reach a much wider audience of over 1,100 ISOs and nearly 150 individuals.

In March 1994, Paul's now ubiquitous “Good Selling” signature appeared for the first time in the newsletter. About a year later, distribution of The Green Sheet had grown from 300 copies per week to 2,200; the content had expanded to six pages; and it became a biweekly publication now received by thousands of sales professionals, ISOs, third party service providers and even banks.

In the first April 1994 issue, the influential Resource Guide made its first appearance. A few months later, the letters to the editor feature debuted with one letter. By 1995, The Green Sheet had gone "hi-tech" with an e-mail address through America Online.

But The Green Sheet was only getting started. A full blown Web site soon followed. April 1997 ushered in the first issue of the newsletter to include paid advertising.

To read the entire article, take a moment to visit Paul Green's "The Green Sheet"  You'll be glad you did!

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