Publication Printing--Not Business As Usual

That, Traub states, is the bad news. The good news, he says, is that the publishing industry has always proved its ability to respond to changes and challenges in its environment.

"Consumer publishers, for example, are using more direct mail efforts and field agents for subscriptions. Unfortunately, these sources are more expensive than sweepstakes, so publishers must increase their efforts to improve the renewal rates," says Traub. "Both busi-ness/trade and consumer markets are utilizing the Internet as a very inexpensive subscription source—which may, in fact, be working. As in the past several years, the total number of new launches continues to increase, particularly for special interest titles."