Tag Archives: Direct Mail

Print Media is Running Out of Time

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No More Time!

No More Time!

The transition from our legacy analog world of ink and paper is accelerating.  Major changes in newspapers over the last several years with revenues significantly down to levels not seen in 10 years.  Growth ceased, and status quo is hard to digest to those in the industry that used to grow by showing up.  Population growth meant circulation growth.  Those trends no longer exist, and print media outlets are starting to drop like flies. First it was newspapers, now the trend has extended to magazines and direct marketing publications.

In a recent Daily Beast article by Daniel Gross “Why Time Warner Felt It Had to Spin Off Magazine Unit Time Inc we see why this is happening.  Its all about stock prices.  This trend is now making its way felt through the entire communications field from newspapers, magazines and direct marketing publications.

 Newspapers were the first to feel the pinch of declining revenue.   The grind of producing, printing and delivering daily papers IS not easy, and its expensive to do it every day, especially on those days when the paper is not full of ads.  Recent changes in newspaper ownership around the county brought some promise of hope when heavy hitters like Warren Buffett bought in and gave some hope to other owners that were still viable.  But Warren likes to buy and hold, and he likes to buy things he knows a lot about – and HE still reads his paper daily.  Not everyone agrees with Warren, nor do they all have his deeps pockets.

Even with his very deep pockets Rupert Murdoch owns bunches of papers in the US and in Australia and England, but Rupert also owns lots of digital media in those markets as well.  He also sees the enduring value in the print, but he was one of the first to see that revenues were lagging in print, and those lagging revenues reflected poorly on the ability for the overall stock value of these publicly traded companies to grow.  He has lead the move to split his holdings into discrete segments – digital on one side and print media on the other.  Future dollars for investment and growth are attached to the digital side, and print you’re now on your own now.

Recently Time Warner felt the urge to ‘unmerge’ its holding and to spin off its magazine unit, including Time, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated and make them a new stand alone organization and take them public as their own group.   The magazines are still profitable, but they cannot keep with the market and are thus a drag on corporate earnings.

Harte-Hanks, Inc. originally started off as group of small Texas newspapers, but chose a different way to grow outside of newspapers and moved into direct marketing, and over 20 years sold off all other holdings, including all of their newspapers and became a powerhouse in shoppers publications covering millions of households in California and Florida.  A still thriving industry for small communities covering a market just below that of the newspaper they provided cost effective targeted advertising and in the process stole market share from larger local newspapers.  Those golden days are now over.  Having written down all of their goodwill equity in the declining value of The Pennysaver, they were able to unload them quickly.

In December the Florida operations were sold back to their founder Dick Mandt, a former boss of mine, and his team of highly effective industry managers.  Were they losing money -no, but they had to go.  Sources tell me that the same thing is likely in California where the original Pennysaver circulates.  Staff cuts are being made, offices are closing, and they appear to be on the same trajectory as Florida.  Can they still make money – yes.  But they can’t grow in the manner that a public company needs them to.

Like Time, Inc., Harte-Hanks, is a publicly traded company and must show growth.  The huge revenue base of the Pennysaver could not keep up the growth curve for Harte-Hanks and stock prices lagged. Decision time came, and decisions were made.  Heads rolled, and the new management staff has a mandate for growth, and a tight timeline.  This is the new story for print and direct marketing, especially for those mailed publications.  If you are on the big march and you fail to keep up – we’ll leave you a canteen of water, and a couple of biscuits, but your on your own.  Tough love, I think we call it!  Time is not always on our side.

What Does Warren Know That We Don’t Know?

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Warren Buffett - Now Loose with Open Check Book

Warren Buffett – The New ‘King of All Media

Warren is on the loose…again, and he brought his check book.  What does the Oracle of Omaha know that the result of us don’t.  For one thing he knows a great investment, and that means something he can own for a long time.  That habit is not in vogue in todays fast trading world.  Warren is looking to own assets that will appreciate over time, while bringing in some great cash flow, year in and year out.  I remember those days, but then my idea of long range planning is “what are we going to do after lunch?”  Warren is worried about the next decade, not what’s for lunch!

Warren, really Berkshire Hathaway, bought most of the print units of Media General, sans the Tampa Tribune, which will stand on its own for Media General, or until they find a way to sell it off as well.  Media General got some great cash and a chance to stay alive for awhile, something many major media companies are trying to do.  Warren got all of these holdings at a good price along with the real estate.  The price is significantly lower than the multiples paid in the past decade when all of these media companies sold or recapitalized, and then the bust hit.  Media companies can still make money, if they are not mired in debt – that is what Warren knows.

With our transition to a digital media world, in progress as we speak, there is still room for print media in local markets.  I should qualify that and say ‘print’ is not really the operative word going forward, but news media leader in a local market with a print product is more to the point.  As the ‘voice’ of the community – their earned mantle – they can be important and profitable businesses.  Kind of like having gone through a takeover by a venture capital company.  Make it leaner, and meaner and you can still make a buck.  Lots of jobs will be shed, but then that is better than oblivion.

With this deal Mr. Buffett and Berkshire have seats at the table with Media General, as well as with The Washington Post Company, as well as a stake in The Buffalo News. He is quickly gaining influence throughout the industry by his unabashed belief in the continuing role of the newspaper in the community.  He provides both financial and moral support to an industry in need of both, and at a very critical time.  The biggest players like the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall St. Journal exist on a different plane.  They are national papers of record that large audiences look to, their issues are different. Local and regional papers have different needs and Warren understands.  With his purchases, not only does he have a seat at the table, but now he sits at the head of the table, and all eyes are on him.

Facebook is launching today what could be one of the truly huge IPOs with a value over $100B.  FB is one of the contributing factors to the demise of newspaper readership.  No they are not the main culprit, but more of a symptom of the decline of newspaper subscriptions.  The newspaper was the watercolor content provider for social currency up through the last 10 years.  If you wanted to be able to join the conversation at work, you read the newspaper.  TV was also a source of conversation with your friends and co-workers.  Now you keep in touch by digital means, texting and emailing…and the Facebook.  Newspapers, in this new age, have lost a lot of their relevance of social currency.  By the way it opened at $38 and has moved across $40 where it is as of this post.  Oh for the days when newspaper sales attracted half of the attention of the FB IPO.

Warren understands that the local market is the last great place to have a real chance to still have an open forum in the community.  There is still a chance in our ever growing social world that the local paper can have a real chance to drive that social discussion.  As in the past, this is not about altruism, it is about having a good earning business.  Newspapers will never command the high multiples when they are sold, because they will never be the monopolies of the past.  With low debt and reduced operating costs newspapers can deliver a return that a ‘buy and hold’ kind of guy like Warren can appreciate.  This strategy can be the one that can save local papers, and I don’t see much else that will.

Good luck Warren!  We are all pulling for you and your strategy for the sake of our industry, and our communities.  We’ll be waiting for more good news in the future.  By the way how about some love for Orange County – The Register is available, and I hear the price is too good to pass up.

Integrated Marketing – an Imperative for Success Today

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The Wheel of Marketing Choices

The integrated imperative!  That’s where marketing is today.  Heed the headline, or perish. There really aren’t any options.  Over the last several years my clients and I have noticed that marketing has gotten harder to do well, we had fewer choices and those produced good results.  There are more marketing choices, channels and media options than we thought possible just a few years ago.  Choosing wisely and making it work across channels and markets – integration, is what it really driving our marketing world today…and to do it well is hard!

On May 10, Steve McKee, in Business Week, authored the article “Integrated Marketing: If You Knew It, You’d Do It”  He starts with the opening paragraph – If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, is such a cliché that it has spawned its own cliché: If it ain’t broke, break it. Unfortunately, that’s just what many companies do unwittingly to their branding programs, playing into the hands of public enemy No. 1 in today’s marketing environment: Fragmentation.

The rest of the article made the case for integrating the marketing, mainly keeping a consistency of messaging across multiple platforms we all endure today.  It is a delightful read, and one that many of his readers commented on in a favorable manner.  For the most part I agree, but the key message he iterates is ‘integrated marketing is hard!’  Yes it is, and this is why so few are able to do it well, if at all.

The boomer generation grew up with tightly bracketed marketing channels.  You bought the best and then hoped for good results.  The good news is that your audience had fewer choices and they were generally on the receiving end – be it newspapers, television, radio or out of home.

That world doesn’t exist today, and everything is hard.  So many choices, and so many places for your audience to be hiding.  The digital world is wonderful with all of its options on both sides, but for the marketer it is tough to juggle all those balls.  Three key channel options for most, have now turned into 8 to 12.  On top of that it is now ‘social’ so your audience can talk back to you…and you better be listening, because they’ll carve you up if you aren’t.  Trust me, I have, and they have left scars for not listening and not responding fast enough.

The McKee article is a good read, and I implore you to look at it.  You should also read the reader comments which come mainly from industry participants, who mostly agree, but they also have their particular bents.  They are in agreement that ‘integrated marketing is hard.’  Yes it is, but there is no choice.  The world we knew was broken, and there is no going back.  Multiple channels, both analog and digital need to be attended to and used appropriately to reach your target ‘audiences’ (emphasis on the plural) if you are to survive.

Many of my clients have long histories, they love their new options, but still talk about how it ‘used to be.’  We commiserate, have a cup of coffee, and then get on with reality and plan how to cover their broad patch of media options.  All of this with careful attention to keeping the message consistent and true to each channel of their multi-faceted customer and target base.  It takes more time, and more money, but it produces better results.  Isn’t that what we are all looking for?  It’s a new world, and I love it!

Love Letters from Washington to the USPS

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Congress - In Action or inaction?In the manner in which it can only do, the Senate has passed legislation aimed at solving some of the problems the USPS is facing.  As only they can do…they punted, and now the House will have the ball for the rest of the game.  On May 15, time will be out so they need to act soon.

What did they accomplish? According to most who care about the issue – not much.  Lots of posturing, and little action.  Retirement incentives for nearly 100,000 postal employees, a ‘study’ of dropping Saturday delivery, a return of $5.5B in ‘overpayments into the retiree health plan along with not having to continue the onerous advance payments they had been conscripted to do in 2006.  They would also allow the USPS to find some new revenue sources like the delivery of wine and beer which they are forbidden by law to do currently.

Wow – study Saturday delivery.  Oh, and they also sent a strongly worded letter to the Postmaster General not to do any post office or distribution center closings, please, until they got back to them.  Our top 100 legislators in the U.S., and this is all they can come up with.  Now it’s on to the House.

The House is going through its ‘due diligence with no due haste of any many.  With their view they also want to punt the issue down the road.  After having asked for bold solutions and suggested that the Postmaster General and his staff run this like a business, they are now saying ‘ wait a minute.’  It is obvious from their public comments that they in the House intend to do just that…for many minutes.

Notes have been passed back an forth Senate to House to USPS in a never ending cycle and now some news is coming out as of today that the USPS has agreed not to close any post offices for now.  The threat of closing many rural post offices was too much for all of the Senators and Congressman.  We’ll effectively deal with that after the fall election.  Surprised, not so much on my part.

The USPS has many problems, but the courage to create a ‘business plan’ that could stem their losses was not one of them.  They came up with one, but it meant pain, and we don’t do pain well in an election year on any house or on either side of the aisle.  Change will have to come in 2013.  But what kind of change do we really want.

It is absolutely true that we communicate differently now than in the past.  Old legacy media and forms of communications are being changed to newer digital forms.  Mail, newspapers, land line telephones are not the key means to reach out and ‘touch someone’ that they used to be.  Get over it, and move on!  We still need all of these to have total access to information and a free dialog that is so important to our way of life.  We need the USPS, but we do need to trim its costs just as newspapers have had to trim theirs to stay alive.  Let’s hope our national legislators have the real courage to tackle this issue and to help place the USPS on a solid footing for the sake of our future.  I’ll be putting out a Mothers Day card tomorrow, and I hope I’ll get a couple of Fathers Day cards next month – we need the cheer that only they can bring when you pull them out of the envelope.

The USPS is NOT a business, it is a real part of the American way of life, and I for one want it to stay, even if I don’t like all the grumpy clerks down at my local P.O. here in Irvine.  Heck, even I get grumpy once and a while.  I welcome your comments, email or even drop me a card in the mail.  Our friends at the post office will appreciate it too!

Postal Reform Now…Will Congress Act to Save or Kill USPS?

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Is the Postal Service going downhill??

“Industries Fear the Ripple Effects of Proposed Postal Service Cuts” – Was the title of the article in by Ron Nixon in the New York Times yesterday.  It is a good statement of some of the key issues that are being taken up starting this week in Washington.  All sides are lined up to help shape the final outcome.  Today ,CCN Money  has picked up the story as well.  It seems that all eyes are on Congress as they take up the issue of “postal reform.”  All this while all the ears are on the Supreme Court as they take up the issue of ‘Obamacare.’  We certainly do live in interesting times.  As the pace of change and disruption our world picks up we must expect many more battles in the future to go along with these two. 

Congress has begun work on their vision for Postal Reform, if reform is what they really have in mind.  All of the various constituencies are lined up on both sides of the issue.  Some want more, and others want the USPS to do less.  On the plus side are the wine and beer lobbies that want to be able to use the USPS to ship their products, something the USPS is prohibited from doing by law.  On the negative side the insurance and banking industries are lined up to ensure that the USPS not move into their fields, as some in Congress has suggested they do to create more revenues.

Like the newspaper business which is also undergoing its own transformation, the USPS is a huge enterprise that employees nearly 600,000.  Beyond that the entire direct marketing field, including mailing companies, printers and direct marketers employees over 10 times that amount.  This is a big deal, and we need to get it right.  As was noted in the article the field supports over $1 trillion in annual economic activity.  It helped to put both of my sons through college, so it is still dear to me.

Nearly every business relies on the post office to deliver packages, advertise services and send out bills. This postal supply chain supports millions of American jobs in fields as diverse as banking, agriculture, media and manufacturing.  This is an urgent issue since the USPS is losing nearly $36 million a day.  As volumes of mail have decreased with former users now going to digital methods of delivery.  Even the USPS has said that it does not expect to get those missing volumes back in the future.

The USPS is also saddled with a Congressional mandate to pre-fund future retirements, the only government agency to have to do so, to the tune of $5.5 billion.  Relief from this mandate would cut the shortfall in half.  A sign that this is a big deal is the nearly $300 million spent over the last three year by those lobbying on all sides of this issue – both the USPS employee unions and industries who work in the direct marketing field.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has proposed closing half of the post offices, approximately 3700 and shutting half of the mail processing centers, 250 there.  Both changes, along with stopping Saturday delivery, would also help to bring down the shortfall.  In a world that has gotten to email and instant messaging for time vital business and personal communications, there would seem to be some wiggle room for printed mail – derisively called ‘snail mail.’  A big question is how fast do we need to be, especially if we want to price reduction, or at least fewer price increases.  And yes, the USPS is also asking for a 50 cent first class stamp.

Postmaster General Donahoe said in prepared testimony.  “If Postal Service were a private company, we would be engaged in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.”  The Senate is beginning the process now, and the House will begin deliberations, probably next month.  A key deadline for consideration is May 15, when a moratorium on closing postal facilities will expire.

Currently under consideration is a bill that passed a Senate committee in November that would tap the overpayment of the future retirement benefits, currently at $10.9 billion to pay down postal service debt (to the U.S. Treasury) and use up to $2 billion for incentives to get a number of long term employees to retire.  The USPS has also planned to open its own health care for employees in hopes of cutting their costs, but there is pretty widespread opposition to that from Congress and the employees.

The USPS is a legacy system with a long history.  Like so many of our other ‘legacy’ systems, including newspapers, they are in deep trouble with the change in the economy in our broadening digital age.  Change is great for some, though it sucks for others.  I live in both worlds, and yes, I still want things the way they used to be.  The question is how much am I willing to pay to have that.  We make those choices each day, and we are making those choices now regarding our postal system.

In the face of the current situation I have to applaud Postmaster General Donahoe and his staff, though that is a strange position for me.  I prospered under the USPS, and endured a lot of petty regulations as well.  They clearly understand where they are today, where the world is going, and have surfaced a plan that will help them to move forward under their current legal and financial burdens.  Congress has the keys to open doors for them to endure and preserve the current levels of service many still desire.  They also have the keys to the vault and say no more.  I compliment the PG for a real and thoughtful plan, and I hope our elected officials will make the right choices.  In the face of the coming elections later this year – this should prove to be good theater, and maybe even good politics.

A Death by Inches for Newspapers

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Sometimes you see a chart that stops you dead in your tracks.  I saw one today in The Atlantic that graphically displayed growing and shrinking industries.  My sons both inhabit the top-growing field of the Internet…and I, still have my past linked to the bottom industry – Newspapers.  Ouch!

This is a great chart because it shows growth and size of the industry losses or gains in terms lost at a single glance.  I hope we can see more of these from the suppliers – LinkedIn Analytics.

As I deal with clients and prospects this will be part of my kit bag to help explain key opportunities, and the pockets of pain at the same time.  This is why the recession has been both so deep, and so persistent.  As employment shifts from the old sources to the high growth areas it is easy to see that needed skill sets must be transformed or much of the pain for those who have lost jobs will find it to be permanent.

The Pony Express Collides with 21st Century

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Postmaster General Patrick DonahoeTomorrow, Patrick R. Donahoe, USPS Postmaster General will be addressing a gathering of key postal businesses from throughout Southern California at a Postal Customer Council event at Knott’s Beery Farm Resort Hotel.   The location is fitting since Knott’s was built on framing images of life in the old west, stagecoaches and railroads – just like our vision of our Postal Service.  I think that is a key to our discussion about how to handle the transformation of the USPS in the 21st century. The USPS like newspapers, printers and mailers are in the midst of a major reshaping as increasing numbers of businesses and all people are moving to digital forms of communications.  The world will never be the same as it was when I started my career selling for Xerox in the 70’s.

Facing great change and pressure the USPS has done a good job in creating plans to bring the service in line with the needs of the 21st century, and stagecoaches are not in the mix. The Postal Service drafted its business plan with analysis from Boston Consulting Group and Accenture.  Based on my reading of the plan, they have gotten good advice, though it has not been well received in Congress, though nothing really is anymore…but that is another problem that modernization needs to impact.

In the last quarter of 2011 the USPS lost $3.3 billion.  The forecast for a full year-end is a $14.1 billion loss for the year ending Sept. 30.  The losses will continue, and continue to grow if nothing is done

First-class stamped mail has declined more than 50% in the past 10 years, from 52 billion deliveries in 2002 to 26 billion in 2011. According to an email from USPS representative Sue Brennan, the drop in mail has resulted in significant excess capacity.

Among the recommendations from the USPS, and their consultants in the new plan to cut losses are:

Rate increases – The U.S. Postal Service wants Congress to help it raise the price of a first-class stamp to 50 cents, an 11 percent increase, as part of its strategy to avoid annual losses as high as $18.2 billion by 2015.  The fact still remains for the USPS is that we are the least expensive postal service in the world- we could even say that we are under priced for the service that we deliver. A price increase would seem to be in line all things considered, including real value.

Staff and facilities reductions – Closure of a number of local post offices and half of the larger mail processing centers would save significant dollars, and would also reduce staff by over 35,000.  This would be a tough call in the middle of a financial downturn, and a national election.  Nine states will see eight or more processing facilities closed.  Almost half of the 223 plants scheduled to be shuttered are located in nine states, including mine.  For the most part, these states, which include California, New York and Texas, have the largest populations in the country.

Curtail Saturday delivery – The Postal Service says it would save $2.7 billion annually by cutting mail delivery to five days a week.  Those of us in urban areas are likely to see this as positive, but rural areas have tended to see this a problem.

Manage Their Own Health Care Benefits – The USPS states that they could save $7.1 billion a year by managing their own health-care benefits.  This, along with not prefunding pension benefits, would be significant, but are a large political football for both sides. The USPSwould have lost only $200 million if not for payments it had to make toward the $5.5 billion it is required by law to set aside for future retiree health benefits annually, something no other government agency needs to do.

Our transistion to a post industrial society is hell for those who still provide the bulk of our labor.  The USPS has dramatically changed over the last couple of decades and automation has made it a model for most of the world, but not even that is not enough well production volumes decrease.  Savings from automation aren’t there any more, and now we have to remove some chairs from the table.  Like newspapers, the transition is painful, but it is still inevitable.  The USPS plan is a good business plan, and Congress should adopt it for the most part.

I wish I could hear the Postmaster General tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I have a previous engagement with a client dealing with digital marketing issues and their competition.  Doesn’t it just figure – new media trumping old media once again.  I hope the USPS gets their way in the end.  The plan is real and reflects the medicine we all need to take now.  In an election year this will drag out and become another political football.  Shame on us for allowing that to happen.

Steve, We Miss You! Happy iPhone Day

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My first iPhone photo leaving San Francisco for home in LA

My first iPhone photo - July 2007

It was fun today to wake up to the news that this was the anniversary of the day that Steve jobs announced the coming production of the iPhone. Everyone viewed the latest production by Steve, and thought this is interesting, but I don’t see it going anywhere.

Boy, were we wrong. In just a few months the 1st iPhones were launched in the relatively new Apple stores. Like many others I waited in line, on day 2, of the launch to be one of the 1st to own this great new tool.

Many of the people that I was working with at a company in Oakland thought that I was totally crazy. I had only been there for a short time as the new President, helping to turn around a direct mail brokerage. My staff was still trying to figure out what kind of leader I was going to be. In this new assignment I was trying to figure out what the future of direct marketing was going to be.

It seems that the future of direct marketing, direct mail, was starting on a decline. It was going to take a while to see that the introduction of the iPhone was going to be a prime mover in launching the mobile marketplace. I love my tools and gadgets.  I’ve always been a bit of a propeller head, but I certainly did not see what was going to come of the new mobile market.

It is fascinating to sit here today and see just how far we have come in 5 short years. The communications field has been dramatically transformed, and yet so many, are still learning that our old methods of marketing and communication will never be the same.

I look forward to the future that all of these wondrous tools and devices will make our lives more fulfilling. For now, we will all muddle through while we learn to adapt to this new digital age. I’ve certainly adapted, and Apple has profited, by the fact that I have totally converted all of my personal computers devices, and soon, within Apple TV.

The biggest challenge is now to find how we can live with these tools without losing our human contact. By that I mean, I how do we ensure that our lives are fuller, but not diminished. All of the changes while bringing numerous benefits have also caused great disruption from those fields like direct marketing, print publishing, and other businesses that have been transformed through digital technology.

The challenge for the future is to learn how to have this technology empower all humans without causing major disruption. I’m not certain that we can have our cake and eat it too, but that is the real challenge. Happy 5th anniversary Steve! We are all thinking of you today, and miss those marvelous product launches.

Happy Endings to All…and to All a Good New Year!

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I love endings!  That usually means a completion of a task or a goal, and the opportunity to move on to new things.  Year endings are the best.  Close out the old and start with a clean slate.  I think this year will not end so well.  Instead of starting fresh we will be dragging an incredible amount of baggage along with us into 2012.  As we have moved into our new digital age in the first decade of the 21st century, our legacy tools and traditions, and so much of what makes up our business way of life are struggling to advance with incredible pressure being on them to adapt, or die.

One of our oldest tools in the U.S. has been the Postal Service initiated in large part by Benjamin Franklin.  It was instrumental to our overall success for over 200 hundred years.  Today, it is seen by many as a ‘relic’ of the past as new digital tools have eaten into its core ability to facilitate communication.  Hand written letters are becoming things of the past.  Our current generation would not understand the context of the old saw – “keep those cards and letters coming!”  Now we have to warn people about communicating (i.e. – texting) while driving.

I could go on for days about this transition, but I won’t.  I have written extensively about the battle for the future of our USPS and what it means to commerce and personal communication.  The leaders of the USPS have offered solutions – i.e cutbacks, and I have applauded their honesty and candor about their situation and things that must be done to keep the USPS on a sound financial footing given our change in mailing patterns.

The latest salvo against their plan has come from their masters, the Postal Commission – “Postal Service’s Closure Review Process Was Flawed, Panel Says”  They believe that the original plan was ‘flawed’ and did not take into consideration a number of sensitive issues other than just cost.  That is an honest statement, but the overall consideration by the Commission is politics.  The only answer for the USPS is a full and open consideration of what we expect from the service in light of today’s evolving digital world, and what are we will to pay for as citizens to preserve the service as a whole, and how will the prime users contribute to save their unique positions.  This includes the full commercial mailers, and rural users who are the prime drivers of cost.

I await 2012 to see how this evolves.  I expect no real answers until after the election of 2012 which will go a long way to determining how we as a large community will choose to deploy and pay for the resources that we use.

Notes from the Battlefield…

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A funny thing happened on my way to researching the options for the USPS.  I got way laid! I must admit that this happens to me a lot, especially when I have ‘chores’ to do.  This time, no chores, but I found that when I started doing research with all of my friends in the direct marketing field – they wouldn’t stop talking.  I quick discussion turned into a 2-hour meeting.  That was repeated multiple times, but it was well worth my time, and therapeutic for them.  I left them all with the feeling that they had gotten something off of their collective chests.

What did I learn…a lot!  First thing, all are passionate about what they do!  They feel that they are contributing to the big marketing effort to sell goods and services, and that direct marketing is still relevant and vibrant.  The second thing that I learned is that, they are nearly all wondering, what the hell happened, and this can’t be happening to me.

Where do they go from here, and where the heck do I go from here?  More field work I guess, looking for real options that reflect the public mood, and the mood of the users of direct mail and direct marketing.  Meanwhile, the battle continues to be waged in the halls of Congress, where hearings will go on,and talk will flow.  If we could harness the energy from all of the Congressman’s lips, even on this little subject, the energy crisis would be over…tomorrow.

Seriously, this issue on the future of the USPS is real, and everyone is concerned.  The answers aren’t simple, and few agree, today, on what we should do, and what kinds of USPS we should have in the 21st Century.  I will continue my journey throughout December to try to bring some sense to the issues, and to try to shed some light on possible solutions, and probable outcomes.  Now back to the battlefield to interview more wounded warriors.  Roger and Out!