Postal rates and reform - What's a mailer to do? Where to turn for answers?
We've put together a panel of experts from across the gamut of those involved in mailing: printers and print service providers, mail service providers, periodicals publishers, and direct marketers. On Wednesday, May 9, at 12:00 PM Pacific/2:00 PM Central/3:00 PM Eastern, join me and my all-star panel as we look at options, alternatives, and strategies for dealing with these challenges. On the roster are:
- Ben Cooper, Executive Director, Mail Moves America, a coalition organized to deal with the emergence of state - and potentially - Federal "Do Not Mail" legislation.
- Kate Muth, Vice President, PostCom, the Association for Postal Commerce, which represents those who use or support the use of mail for business communication and commerce.
- Jerry Cerasale, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA).
- Leo Raymond, Director of Postal Affairs, Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association (MFSA), the national trade association for the mailing and fulfillment services industry.
- Rita Cohen, Senior Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Policy, Magazine Publishers of America (MPA), the trade association for the consumer magazine industry.
Among the topics we'll be discussing are:
- The latest postal rate increase - at least part of it - is going into effect shortly. And mailers are still under shell shock from the size of the jump! What can small circulation periodical publishers and short-run catalog mailers do to avoid rate increases of 20-30% or more? What about other direct mailers?
- We have a handful of states threatening "Do Not Mail" legislation, and there is a rumor that the FTC might put together a registry like the "Do Not Call" registry. Hundreds of millions signed up for the DNC list... How would a DNM list affect our industry? Find out what you can do!
- Is there really such a thing as "Postal Reform?" What will the new USPS look like? Will we have yet another rate increase before we see the next "version"?
Join us; this will be a very lively and educational discussion! There will also be an opportunity for you ask your own questions and we will answer as many as we can during the webinar. We will get written answers for any questions we don't get to and will post those for eveyone to read.
Discussion
By drjoewebb on May 06, 2007
I've written on "do not mail" in a column on 3/19/07
http://members.whattheythink.com/drjoewebb/drjoe179.cfm
Perhaps the WTT powers that be can move the column to the "free side" of the WTT site to make it more accessible.
In it I compared the effectiveness of CAN-SPAM legistlation (zilch!) and what might happen with "do not mail."
Strangely, there are already laws and mechanisms for people to cut down on mail, and they already work very well.
Now if they would just stop sending bills... and insisting that I mail them something back...
Seriously, much of the first class mail is transaction-related. The more people are able to pay by credit card for utilities and other items, the more that the mail can be consolidated. This is not written about much, that credit card growth has also meant that transactions are consolidated into one billing and one payment event.
I recently saw an EDSF survey that showed how much of financial service companies participating had been able to switch to electronic reporting and transactions... can't lay my hands on the report, but perhaps someone reading this can cite the data.
A legislator in Rhode Island has proposed "do not mail" here. I wonder if he will exempt his campaign from it. There are some attempts to make political phone calls covered under "Do Not Call." Interestingly, when the legislation passed Congress, they forgot to include themselves in the final law. How did they just happen to let that slip their collective minds?
Discussion
Join the discussion Sign In or Become a Member, doing so is simple and free