54 Years and Counting…

MDR has been compiling education data for more than 50 years.

Education is our passion.

For MDR, it all started in 1969, kicking off a commitment to the education industry. We’ve been inspired ever since to give our customers better options in outreach and engagement. Take a look at our journey…

1969

MDR BEGINS

Market Data Retrieval (MDR) is founded by Herb Lobsenz in NYC. He took a train to Grand Central Station, got a few rolls of dimes, found a telephone booth where no one was sleeping and started Market Data Retrieval by dialing every educational marketer in NYC. By the time he was out of dimes he had a few appointments. By the end of the first week, Scholastic agreed to become MDR’s first customer.

The MDR database began as a computer tape file of school district enrollments and budgets

Companies began asking for mailing lists of public school districts and schools selected by enrollment and expenditures

We became profitable, we began to grow, and we took suggestions from our customers

1970s

ENTER THE COMPUTER

The 1970s saw our product line grow and our services improve.

1977 Installed our first computer

1978 Acquired Curriculum Information Center (CIC) to add school district administrator names, public libraries, and school directories to our product suite

1978 Installed WATS lines so we could phone school districts directly to update the database

1979 Developed a computerized system to reflect the actual organization of the school market, making it possible to add more data and update it more quickly

1980s

TEACHER NAMES & HIGHER ED

In the early 1980s we began compiling our own Teacher Name data.

1981 Teacher Name data collection begins

1981 Improved turnaround time from two weeks to five days or less

1981 Began compiling information on the use of technology in schools; 16,000 schools using computers during the 1981-1982 school year grew to 100,000 schools in 1994

1981 Purchased the My Weekly Reader teacher names list of 800,000 names and 12 job titles

1984 Introduced a day care list of 59,000 licensed day care centers and 27,000 director names to the market

1986 MDR was purchased by Dun & Bradstreet

1986 Expanded our product line into the college market

1990s

DATA GOES DEEP

Postal regulation changes and a new postal discount structure caused us to develop services to help our customers keep postage costs down and deliverability up.

1990 Postal & database services are introduced

1990 Introduced School Construction Alerts service

1990 Added Microcomputer Models selection to database

1990 Launched a New Profiling system to help customers identify patterns in their data

1990 Educational Directory Online launched

1991 Teacher at Home file offered

1995 Buyers at School file offered

1995 Custom Name Matching service added

1996 School Directories go electronic with Easy Access on diskettes and CD-ROM

1998 Customer Pattern Recognition Profiles launched

2000s

E-EVERYTHING

MDR developed the first education email database; the Internet provided faster, easier access to MDR data and products.

2001 Launches industry first email database and deployment services

2001 First in market to offer email append

2003 Online Order site launched, customers can purchase lists and publications online

2004 First in market to offer email services

2005 Market Research services offered

2005 Easy Access goes online

2006 School Funding Services launched

2007 MarketView launches

2007 Acquired MKTG

2009 Acquired QED

2009 Launched Affinity Modeling

2009 MDR hosted its first EdNET

2010s

MAKING THE CONNECTION

We developed new and innovative ways to help our customers reach prospects and to connect with teachers.

2010 EdNET Insight subscription service introduced

2011 Acquires WeAreTeachers to expand focus on media and content marketing services

2012 Launched targeted Web Ads

2013 Added Charter School Management Organizations to database

2015 Integrated Marketing Services launched, expanding our customized marketing services with more content and media options

2016 School Leaders Now web and social sites launched

2018 Launched ConnectED Data – giving customers 24/7 access to education data

2019 50 years strong with new innovations on the horizon

Thank you to all the customers who’ve made MDR what it is today. If you’ve been with us since the early days you’ve likely watched the evolution of our logo over time. Under any logo, we’re proud you’re with us.

From the early days when Retrieval was a marketing word, to our angsty teen years when we kept moving around in relation to our parent company, to our latest look, MDR’s logo has always reflected our willingness to adapt to the times and the industry.

The most accurate and comprehensive education data, at your fingertips.

Send us a message and we’ll be in touch soon.