Not So Fast

Oh, the joy.

The U.S. Postal Service has announced a May 12 rate increase. But it's modest as postage hikes go. At deadline, the DMA's Jerry Cerasale estimated that the average for standard mail is about 2.9%.

The tenderhearted are weeping with relief that the new rate-making system worked. But not this boy.

They said the same thing when an innocent man was freed after 27 years in prison: The system worked…

But who're we kidding? Let's not forget that mailers were hit with two increases in two years, and that some subclasses were shellacked — catalogers, for one.

I didn't hear even a whimper of gratitude about postal reform at the DMA's recent Catalog on the Road Day in Cambridge, MA. There seemed to be two topics of conversation: How to market online and integrate the channels, and how to cope with the postal hikes (see related stories on page 12).

Chagrin over the rates was in direct proportion to the extent a mailer relies on print.

Some DMers are revisiting tired old cost-saving tactics like cutting trim size.

But that's no long-term solution. Hey, I'm in magazine publishing. Like catalogers, we have that conversation every couple of years. If we trimmed our books every time it was suggested, there'd be nothing left to them.

And work-sharing discounts? They don't help much if you're a small guy. The only option may be to get yourself acquired, as one speaker suggested.

So there's no need to throw a champagne brunch for Jack Potter. Maybe in two years, but not now.

We should never forget the hikes meted out to mailers from 1988 to the present. They came close to destroying the catalog business.

But the new rates aren't bad. We've all seen worse.

As they say in the fight game, “Take what they give you.”