Direct Mail Outlook -- Meeting the Challenge

• Mail volume is decreasing on the whole for the U.S. Postal Service. Postage rates increase as a result, and volume decreases again.

• Greening initiatives, including the Do Not Mail (DNM) movement, can be viewed as a threat, no matter how seemingly minor it is currently. Never mind that paper is already recycled, or that it is grown in managed timberlands. If people are led to believe that the Land’s End catalog comes at the expense of Bambi’s mother, the masses will protest.