Opinion: Seriously Consider Attending New Postal Event in Washington, D.C.

The organization was launched because some catalogers felt the DMA’s ties to its letter-mailer members prohibited it from acting in flats (catalog) mailers’ best interests when it came to getting favorable postal rates for letters vs. flats. I want to make it perfectly clear that, in my opinion, this is not the DMA’s fault. This has come about because the evolving structure of postal rate setting has effectively driven a wedge between bulk letter mailers and bulk flats mailers for more than a decade now. Letter mailers gain better discounts because letters are cheaper to process and deliver. That certainly makes sense, but the flip side of it is catalogers’ rates, most notably in last year’s postage increase, have skyrocketed. That’s made the DMA’s task in trying to serve both letter mailers and flat mailers more challenging.