Last week, I attended a Postal Forum and Technology Tour at QuadGraphics. This was my first opportunity to attend one of Quad’s postal forums which were previously held in romantic spots as the Dominican Republic or Key West. This one was held in Milwaukee, where most of their plants are located.

Joel Quadracci spoke to us on Wednesday night about his hesitation to have the conference during the bad economic times, but was excited about the 75 attendees at the conference. Finally, after ten years, I met a Quadracci.

Some of the participants, besides Hammock Inc., were from Lord and Taylor, US News and World Report, Time Inc., Kohl’s Department Stores, Nature Conservancy, Smithsonian, Hearst magazines, Crain Communications, Grand Circle Travel and Yankee magazine.

On Wednesday evening, we toured the original Quad plant in Pewaukee. The plant has evolved through the years and now specializes in producing direct mail marketing pieces. I have a kitchen drawer full of personalized labels supplied by various groups. I bet that a majority of them were printed in that Pewaukee plant.

You know those credit card statements that we all love to get in the mail? At Pewaukee, these are printed, personalized, addressed and put into envelopes in mail sort order off the same press. Then, they are taken to another mail sorter that combines them in mail sort order with thousands of other credit card statements.

On Thursday we traveled to the largest printing plant in this hemisphere and/or in the world, the Quad plant at Lomira. Jeff Henke, director of QuadData Solutions, talked about the address management requirements that will be required by the United State Postal Service in 2009.

Our clients will need to prove that the addresses have been updated prior to mailing through JIT NCOA (Just in time – national change of address), Move Update, Address Change Service or another service. Our client NFIB should already be good to go.

A lot of the discussion at the conference concerned the Intelligent Mail Barcode. Pritha Mehra, vice president Mail Entry and Payment Technologies for the USPS and Phil Thompson, manager of Distribution Business Resources for Quad discussed the options for this service. I’ve already obtained Mailer ID numbers for our clients, which are required for the Intelligent Mail BarCode. Periodicals mailers will need to be ready by May 2009.

Below is a photo of the current Mail Bar Code:

And this is a photo of the Intelligent Mail Bar Code:

The new bar code contains more information about the mailer and the addressee. I wish I could say that we could track the magazine to its destination using the bar code, but that isn't one of its abilities.

One of the highlights of the forum for me was to see bindery operations and mailing operations of Quad. Their equipment can multi-bind and multi-mail different magazines at the same time to increase postal savings. Different magazines can also be polybagged and mailed at the same time to increase postal savings. The equipment has cameras to take photos along the line to make sure that the proper magazines are going to the correct subscriber. It’s amazing.

After the Lomira plant tour, Joe Muehlbach, director of facilities at Quad discussed their environmental practices. Quad has always been known for their wise, balanced use of all resources, minimizing consumption whenever possible. Quad recycles 98.6% of all solid wastes produced in their plants. The plant at Saratoga Springs, NY is a landfill waste-free plant. In their Sussex plant, food wastes are composted at their on-site daycare in a worm farm. The compost will be sold. Plus the daycare will have a garden to grow vegetables.

Since my passion is the environment, Joe mentioned some facts that caught my attention. Europe is 10-15 years ahead of the United States in environmental efficiencies. Also, he mentioned that within two years, 32 states will experience a water shortage, much like the one in the Atlanta area last year.

Distribution/Mail Delivery was the subject of Jeff Kruepke, director of Quad Transportation Services, session. Despite the drop in fuel costs, freight rates will continue to rise because capacity is less, equipment costs are rising and the credit crunch. Quad’s response is to continue to evaluate carriers, to find additional value and to maximize efficiencies.

Quad has purchased ten of the new Smart Way Trailers for semis. These trailers produce less drag resulting in a .5 to .8 mpg increase, which can make a difference if you’re shipping from Milwaukee to San Diego.

The first session on Friday dealt with pricing. Maura Robinson, vice president of pricing with the USPS discussed their pricing strategy. Price increases will be announced in February for a mid-May start. Unlike in the past, the postal increases are now based on the CPI.

Joe Schick, director of postal affairs for Quad Graphics, discussed the flats sequencing system, which is being adopted for use by the USPS. Basically, the address for the consumer will be upside down for processing on the new flats (read magazines and catalogs) equipment at the USPS. And, to the route deliverer, the address will be right reading.

I will keep our clients posted of any changes that they need to make to their mailing lists between now and May 2009.

Above is an illustration from the postal document E8-8621 about the addressing changes for periodicals and other automated flat mail. The new address changes take effect March 29, 2009.

I find it somewhat confusing as the address appears to be upside down on the front cover of the magazine. My understanding is that with the equipment recently purchased by the United States Post Office, the address is actually right side up and correct for the equipment. Visually, it's upside down for the reader, not the postman.

I contacted Sean Stiewe, our postal service representative at QuadGraphics, and asked him if I had interpreted the rules correctly. Sean replied, "It looks that way as of right now, I am waiting to see how Quad is going to handle this with the post office. I will look further into this for you."

Currently, the delivery address is right side up on the front cover. We'll keep you posted on this issue as March 2009 nears.

Here a news item from America Business Media about publisher's letters mailed with periodicals:

In addition to the [postal] pricing changes, there is one content rule change affecting the periodicals class: a modification to the "loose enclosures" rule change to permit the enclosure of unbound "publisher's letters" with a periodical.

As many ABM members may know, there are very strict rules covering loose enclosures in bound publications, and if you run afoul of those rules, the enclosure is treated as a separate Standard mail piece (unless you mark it as or can talk USPS into treating it as a "ride-along" piece). Therefore, a "publisher's letter" dealing with issues such as frequency or content of the publication has been deemed to be a publisher's own advertising and thus not a permissible Periodicals insert. Through the Periodicals Advisory Group (in which ABM and several members are active participants), the industry and the Postal Service reached a reasonable resolution.

According to the USPS's new ruling, "mailers are now entitled to include a publisher's printed letter, including facsimile signature, as a permissible loose enclosure with a Periodicals publication, provided the printed letter is limited to the publisher promoting the publication; or announcing or describing changes to the publication (e.g. title, format, frequency, terms or conditions of a subscription); or other business of the publication, as long as the printed letter includes no other advertising for the publisher or any other party."

Because there were immediate concerns about whether mentioning a Web site would be considered permissible "other business of the publication," or impermissible "advertising," David Straus, ABM's Washington counsel, obtained clarification from the Postal Service for ABM members.

According to that clarification, there are four typical scenarios in which a Web site might be mentioned:

1) Visit our Web site at www.XXX.com

2) www.XXX.com

3) "Go to www.XXX.com to subscribe or renew your subscription"

4.) "Visit www.XXX.com to see our other products or services"

The Postal Service now says that options 1, 2 and 3 may be included in the letter, while option 4 may not. There would first have to be a publisher's letter, of course, about the publication, then 1 or 2 would be ignored as innocuous. Scenario 3 would be considered related, while 4 would be advertising for other business of the publisher.

Periodical mailers, as our clients - National Federation of Independent Business, the Marine Corps League and the Daughters of the American Revolution - will be paying 2.7% more to mail their magazines beginning May 12, 2008. Not good news, but the postal service warned us last year of this increase. We just didn't know how much.