Industry News |
MAY 8 | Retailers Report Mixed Results for April Consumers gave some of the nation's retailers a little relief in April after months of dismal sales, gravitating toward less expensive discounters and wholesale clubs but generally still shying away from stores selling clothes and other non-necessities. Read more from The Associated Press |
MAY 5 | Nat Geo A Big Winner at National Magazine Awards The 2008 National Magazine Awards were handed out on May 1 and National Geographic earned the most wins with three. Read more from the Magazine Publishers of America |
MAY 2 | Debunking Do Not Mail Myths Consumers say they want to stop receiving direct mail for three key reasons — all of which appear to be myths, according to Pat Kachura, the Direct Marketing Association's Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility. Read more from Multichannel Merchant |
APRIL 14 | PIB: First-Quarter Ad Revenue, Pages Down The Publishing Information Bureau (PIB) on Monday reported that ad revenue and pages came in lower in the first quarter than in the equivalent period last year. Softness continues in the automotive and home furnishing ad categories, the PIB said. Read more from the Magazine Publishers of America |
APRIL 11 | IDEAlliance Certifies Proofing Systems IDEAlliance reports that 27 monitor proofing systems have passed its newly launched IDEAlliance Monitor Proofing Systems Certification Program. Read more from WhatTheyThink.com |
APRIL 11 | Retailers Have Dreary March The early Easter holiday, a cold, damp month and a budget-conscious consumer combined to ring up the weakest March monthly sales results for U.S. retailers in 13 years. Read more from Reuters |
APRIL 11 | USPS Releases New Address Standards for Flats The U.S. Postal Service has released new address standards for flat-sized mail. These new standards are set to go into effect as of March 29, 2009. Read more from DM News |
APRIL 4 | Number of Religious, Auto Catalogs Rises The National Directory of Catalogs recorded 12,230 catalogs in its 2008 edition, up from 10,668 in its 2004 volume. The biggest gains came in religion-focused titles and automotive catalogs. Read more from Direct |
APRIL 4 | U.S. Paper Recycling Hits Record High Fifty-six percent of paper consumed in America was recycled last year, according to the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA). That's an all-time high and way ahead of the AF&PA's goal of having 55 percent recovery by 2012. As a result, the AF&PA has set a new recovery goal of 60 percent. Read more from the AF&PA |
MARCH 31 | Study: Print More Trusted Source of Information Than Internet Reinforcing print publishers' frequent assertions of relationships with readers, new research by MediaVest suggests that readers trust print more than the web in almost every area. Read more from Advertising Age |
MARCH 26 | Ad Spending Barely Budged in '07 U.S. ad spending growth ground to a halt in 2007, climbing a negligible 0.2 percent to reach $149 billion last year after a 4.1 percent gain in 2006, according to data released Tuesday by TNS Media Intelligence. However, spending in consumer magazines grew 7 percent to $24.4 billion. Read more from Advertising Age |
MARCH 20 | Catalog Success 200 A key metric for catalogers is how many new customers they are adding to their houseflies. Here, in the Catalog Success 200, the trade title presents its sixth-annual ranking of the top 200 U.S.-based catalogers with the strongest housefile growth rates. |
MARCH 20 | Lillian Vernon Closing In On Sale Less than a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, gifts and housewares cataloger Lillian Vernon has reached a tentative agreement to sell the 57-year-old company. Read more from Multichannel Merchant
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MARCH 20 | MPA: Consumer Mags Grow Ad Share Consumer magazines’ share of media advertising revenue for full-year 2007 was nearly 18.5 percent, marking a percentage point increase over 2006. Read more from the Magazine Publishers of America |
MARCH 12 | MPA Pitches New Measurement Initiative The Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) has announced a "major initiative" aimed at improving its measurement of magazine audience. The MPA’s plan includes a proposal for new audience-based metrics that count "exposure," "engagement" and "action-taking" as a result of ad placement. Read more from the MPA |
MARCH 12 | New Postal Shipping Rates Set The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday announced new pricing for its shipping and premium mail services, a follow-up to its February announcement that it would raise first class, standard and periodical rates in May. Read more from AP Newswire |
MARCH 6 | Retailers Report Mixed February Sales Results The nation's retailers got a little reprieve in February, as consumers hesitantly returned to malls and stores after retrenching in recent months. Read more from AP Newswire |
MARCH 4 | USPS Pushes Back Intelligent Mail Implementation Postmaster General John Potter announced today that the US Postal Service will push back the implementation of Intelligent Mail from January 2009 to May 2009. Read more from DM News |
FEBRUARY 12 | Mailers Face a May Postal Hike The U.S. Postal Service, in its first increase under the new postal reform rules, will raise its rates on May 12 by low single-digit percentages. Read more from Multichannel Merchant |
FEBRUARY 11 | ABC Releases Latest Mag Sales Figures Celebrity weeklies are still turning in a strong performance, according to magazine circulation figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Read more from Advertising Age |
FEBRUARY 7 | Retailers Report Weak January Sales According to AP Newswire, the nation's retailers delivered more evidence of a stumbling economy on Thursday by reporting their weakest January sales performance in nearly four decades. |
FEBRUARY 1 | USPS Mail Volume Down According to preliminary financial results, the U.S. Postal Service's mail volume is down by 3 percent for the first quarter of fiscal year 2008. Read more from DM News |
JANUARY 16 | PIB Reports 2007 Magazine Advertising Totals Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for full-year 2007 increased 6.1 percent compared with the previous year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). |
JANUARY 16 | NewPage Announces Integration Plan NewPage Corporation on Wednesday announced capacity reductions at two paper mills, with the closure of a third mill as part of their acquisition of Stora Enso North America. Read more from PR Newswire |
JANUARY 16 | Harry & David Buys Breakfast Cataloger Harry & David Holdings reportedly has acquired 120-year-old breakfast foods cataloger Wolferman’s from Williams Foods. Read more from Multichannel Merchant |