SPECIAL EDITION: Postal Rate Recommendation Could be Catastrophic for Catalogers

Although the PRC recommended an average rate increase of 9.3 percent for Standard Mail, the bulk mail category that most catalogers and other direct mailers use, a closer look beneath its recommendations exposes potential rate hikes as steep as 43 percent for some catalog subcategories. “For anyone who doesn’t mail letters, the news is all bad,” says Dave Crofoot, CFO for Johnson Smith Co., a Bradenton, Fla.-based multititle mailer of the Betty’s Attic, Things You Never Knew Existed, The Lighter Side and several other catalogs. He pointed to several instances in which bulk mailers of flats (oversized mail that includes most catalogs) would have to pay considerably more than bulk letter mailers.