Thursday, August 15, 2013

ATTN Mailers: USPS Mulls 2014 Postage With FSS Pricing

U.S. Postal Service support of its Flats Sequencing System (FSS) may lead to an overhaul of postal rates early next year to include “an FSS pricing structure” for the Standard and Periodicals classes (and perhaps First Class mail), according to an online Dead Tree Edition post. The story cites indications from postal officials that the plan will include significant incentives for mailers to create FSS-optimized bundles for ZIP codes served by the giant machines, while continuing to make traditional carrier-route and five-digit bundles for non-FSS areas. No details were released, but such a change would certainly impact catalogs, direct mail and printers, prompting Target Marketing magazine to pick up the story at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/aggregatedcontent/fss-postage-pricing-will-affect-catalogs-magazines-printers 

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Print Reading Audiences Post Growth in 2013

If you believe the Digital Age dooms print marketing, check out the latest print audience figures for this year. Print reading audiences are posting growth, according to spring 2013 data released by measurement firm GfK MRI. Of the 181 magazine titles surveyed, about 42%, or 76 titles, saw print audience size increase by 5% or more from spring 2012 to spring 2013. About 35 publications saw audiences grow from 5% to 10%. Another 41 magazines saw gains of 10% or more, with 11 of the 41 titles growing readership by more than 20% year-over-year. The big winner was Diabetes Forecast, with a whopping increase of 48.73%. Of course, some titles lost readership. About 15 publications reported losses between 5% and 10%, with 12 losing 10% or more. The biggest loser was Meredith’s FamilyFun magazine, which reported a drop of 23.28%. When the digital audience (excluding Web traffic) is added to print readership, even more publishers have reason to celebrate growth. With combined digital and print audience, 39 publications saw audience gains between 5% and 10%, and 42 magazine titles saw gains of 10% or more when comparing the spring 2012 to 2013. For more, see the Folio report at http://www.foliomag.com/2013/magazine-audience-sizes-flat-growing-gfk-mri-numbers#.UgpLy9KyByI