For the first time in many months, direct sales and catalog circulation rates began to stabilize for at least a couple of multichannel merchants reporting financial results this week. It’s been a grueling few years for print catalogs. Catalog sales have been hurting for awhile and across a wide range of product categories, driven in part by a continued shift in sales from catalogs to the Internet. Coupled with rising postage and production costs, it’s no wonder that the print catalog business has contracted significantly. MediaFinder.com reported this week that the number of print catalogs declined from 3,836 to 1,158 between 2005 and 2010. The number of online-only catalogs grew during the same period, up from 869 for a total of 2,000 this year. The number of catalogs appearing in both print and online formats increased from 6,661 to 8,640. This week, however, there were signs that the contraction in catalogs may be stabilizing. Cornerstone, which is the retail and catalog division of HSN Inc., reported a 6% increase in sales during the first quarter of 2010, the first year-over-year quarterly sales growth since the fourth quarter of 2007. While it decreased circulation by 3% during the first quarter, this is better than the 19% reduction in circulation Cornerstone reported for the fourth quarter of 2009. The company attributes the sales growth to an increase in demand in luxury and outdoors products and a reduction in return rates, among other strategies. In its first quarter call with analysts, Cabela’s said it is focusing on mailing smaller, more relevant catalogs. This strategy has resulted in an overall reduction in the number of pages mailed, an increase in circulation and improved efficiency in its direct marketing spend. During the first quarter, Cabela’s replaced three older catalog titles with three new catalogs. Cabela’s attributes much of the 2.1% growth in its direct segment during the first quarter of 2010 to an increase in Internet sales. The company expects the Internet to continue to become a bigger piece of its direct business and will launch a new $10 million Cabelas.com Web site this summer. Upscale shoe and accessory multichannel merchant SimplySoles has a similar story. “We are going back to where we were in terms of our growth strategy back in 2007,” owner Kassie Rempel recently told me. Rempel reports that since a rebranding and remerchandising initiative earlier this year, sales are up and the company is increasing circulation and prospecting for its catalog.