Noticeable Delivery Improvement for Red Tag Members

The Red Tag News Publications, a not-for-profit association of consumer and business magazines that monitors USPS delivery, reported their members experienced some of the best postal delivery scores in the month of May. The consolidated delivery trends for WEEKLY publications show an improvement of 15% since the beginning of the year. For the first time ever, all USPS Areas are in the 70% and greater range, with one Area reporting a 25% improvement. The most impressive statistic in the report showed copies delivered later than one day decreased from 20% in January to 9% in May. This is a vast improvement from August 2011 when 28% of the copies were delivered more than one day late. According to Jack Widener, Red Tag representative, publishers consider this a critical number which has a dramatic effect on subscriber satisfaction levels. To view the consolidated reports or to become a Red Tag member, visit their website at www.redtag.org.

Source: Red Tag

USPS Moves Ahead with Modified Network Plan

The U.S. Postal Service has posted the summer 2012 facilities list spreadsheet showing the 48 sites where consolidation activities are scheduled. The sheet shows facility name, address, drop ship key, gaining facility, and workload migration target dates by shape and process step, and will be updated as necessary. Service Standard Directory (SSD) files and maps can also be accessed. The maps show the current service standard as of April 1, 2012. The future maps show the service standard based on business rules defined in the Federal Register (39 CFR 121) for interim service standards. A new service standard map will be available after the June 15, 2012 publication of labeling list changes that go into effect July 1, 2012.

Source: USPS

QR Code Use Soars

According to Multichannel Merchant Outlook 2012-2013, the number of merchants using QR codes as part of their marketing strategy has more than quadrupled to nearly half (47%), compared to last year when just 8% of sellers reported employing them. The survey, released in June 2012, shows that a fair number of merchants (38%) are not using QR codes, and a further 15% aren’t yet using QR codes but are considering doing so. The annual survey also examines how sellers are using QR codes for consumers to scan with their mobile devices, such as smartphones. It finds that 63.2% of respondents are using them in print catalogs (up 28.2% from last year), 47.4% feature them on postcards and other non-catalog mail pieces (up 12.4%), and two in five merchants (40.4%) are using them as part of their marketing collateral (signs, bags, etc.).

Source: Print in the Mix

Discontinuation of POSTNET Barcode

Have you recently received an official looking letter from USPS Headquarters with the heading: POSTNET Barcode Retirement – Transition to Intelligent Mail Barcode? If so, you shouldn’t panic if your mailing lists are prepared by Brown Printing. At the start of the Intelligent Mail effort several years ago Brown Printing made the decision to convert all of our ink-jet and paper address label production to the Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) format. Customers not using Full-Service are automatically converted to Basic IMB. If you have any questions, please contact your Customer Account Manager.