CHICAGO, Dec. 1 -- RR Donnelley's DistributionOptimizer(SM) service simplifies the distribution of periodicals for its magazine customers while driving postal efficiencies and leveraging the company's scope and scale to provide improved delivery times, predictable total mail costs and lower postage. DistributionOptimizer combines the company's recently announced co-palletization service with its dynamic entry and drop-shipping capabilities: Co-palletization, ideal for publications with circulations or mailings under 100,000, combines presorted, bundled magazines from different publishers on the same pallet, instead of distributing them in sacks. Dynamic entry rapidly analyzes each mailing to identify the best strategy to optimize postal discounts, entry points and schedules. Drop-shipping delivers deeper postal penetration and reduces overall delivery times. The benefits of combining these capabilities for RR Donnelley customers include: maximizing the postal discounts for every issue's entire mailing and improving delivery, quality and tracking of mailings. RR Donnelley is able to provide this unique service because of its nationwide, highly-automated network of print and logistics facilities. "DistributionOptimizer is proof that RR Donnelley is able to deliver efficient and effective services that help our customers sell more and save more," said Daniel Knotts, president of magazine, catalog and retail for RR Donnelley. "We listened to our customers and created a service that takes the periodicals we prepare and produce and delivers them efficiently through the postal system every time. The bottom line is that customers win." RR Donnelley piloted this service with five magazine customers. During the pilot, the customers realized reduced postage costs, improved delivery times of their overall mailings and additional discounts for utilizing RR Donnelley's new service. RR Donnelley has been preparing, producing and delivering medical publications for Quadrant HealthCom Inc. for the past five years. Quadrant is now using the DistributionOptimizer service. "RR Donnelley's new service is not only saving us money on distribution, it is also ensuring the quality of our mailings. It has worked seamlessly and allowed us to focus on extending our selling cycle as well as developing efficiencies in the production of our journals," said Mike Walchonski, senior vice president of Quadrant HealthCom Inc. In conjunction with RR Donnelley Logistics' certified co-palletization facility in Bolingbrook, Ill., the company is offering this service to its periodical customers at its manufacturing facilities in Pontiac, Ill., and Mendota, Ill. The company has plans to extend the service to additional facilities in 2004. Another customer using RR Donnelley's new service to maximize postal discounts is Randall Publishing. "RR Donnelley's DistributionOptimizer service is very easy to use. We've been using the service for the past six months and we're already seeing the program's benefits of improved delivery times, quality and the additional savings," said Susan Chambers, controller for the Construction Media Group of Randall Publishing. An added benefit is the DistributionOptimizer Calculator, created by RR Donnelley to help customers better manage and predict their total mail distribution costs. The calculator is customized to each customer's distribution needs and by simply inputting the issue weight, advertising percentage and number of copies, allows customers to easily determine and compare their mail distribution costs for different mailing scenarios.