The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has launched major changes to its Priority Mail line-up, with improved features including free insurance, improved USPS Tracking and day-specific delivery which are expected to generate more than a half a billion dollars in new revenue over the next year.
IRS inaction has led to an approximately $2 billion windfall for U.S. paper companies that burn black liquor, according to the reporter who originally broke the story about black liquor tax credits in 2009.
Steven Mufson of the The Washington Post recently chronicled how paper companies originally thought the Alternative Fuel Mixture tax credits they received in 2009 would be taxable income.
Mufson's tale of black-liquor boondoggles, lobbying by paper companies, and a politicized IRS is well worth the read. But the picture is actually worse than he presents in several ways
Michael Makin, president and CEO of Printing Industries of America, issued the following statement, in response to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s hearing titled “A Path Forward on Postal Reform.”
In his oral testimony before a a House committee yesterday, Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe said that the Postal Service continues to face systemic financial challenges because it has a business model that does not allow it to adapt to changes in the marketplace and it does not have the legal authority to make the fundamental changes that are necessary to achieve long-term financial stability.
The Alliance for Audited Media (AAM)—as the Audit Bureau of Circulations has renamed itself—has endorsed new guidelines for print publications that go digital-only. The new guidelines, adopted at the AAM's Nov. 14-16 board meeting, say that when a publication makes that transition, it must give subscribers the option of receiving the digital subscription, converting to another print publication, or receiving a refund for the remainder of the subscription.
The AAM is also looking to toughen up circulation-reporting requirements for publishers…the AAM board agreed to require U.S. magazines with circulations over 250,000 to provide issue-by-issue circulation data to the AAM's “Rapid Report.”
The POSTPlan reflects a determination by the Postal Service to explore options to adjust its retail window hours without closing post offices. Retail window hours of operation at more than 13,000 post offices nationwide will be reduced to six, four, or two hours per weekday, and in approximately 73 locations, hours of operation will increase.
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has signed an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell Federal eBooks. Titles are available in eBook format for the iPad, eReaders, PCs, and Macs when running the iTunes Store app.
Canadian magazine publishers want taxpayers to help them reinvent themselves, asking the federal government for money to develop digital products they hope will compensate for falling print subscriptions. The trade association that represents Canadian publishers has been quietly lobbying federal officials in an attempt to win funding to develop multimedia-rich digital editions that go beyond the capabilities of print.
Despite falling circulation at the country’s largest publications and anemic adoption rates for their online versions, Magazines Canada is convinced readers will move online if publishers can train employees how to enhance their products for Web-savvy readers.
The Postal Service’s 2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Promotion will offer online merchants an upfront 2 percent postage discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards that include a mobile barcode or print/mobile technology—such as a QR code—that can be read or scanned by a mobile device and leads the mail recipient to a mobile-optimized shopping website.
New York Congressman Brian Higgins sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors Chairman Thurgood Marshall, Jr. asking the board to take immediate action to replace Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. “Under the Postmaster General’s leadership, the USPS displayed a complete lack of transparency and accountability throughout the process, which casts serious doubt that the current leadership is up to the task of leading the Postal Service through these challenging times.”
