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Catalogers Hit Hard By New Postal Rates

Multichannel Merchant, Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:30 AM

Catalog mailers were glum yesterday after the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors (BOG) approved the majority of the recommendations issued by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) regarding the pending rate case. The recommended increase for some catalog mailers is as much as 40%. The BOG did leave open the possibility of price revisions for Standard Mail flats--the category affecting most catalogers--before the May 14 implementation date.

The BOG also delayed implementation for periodicals until July 15 to give the industry time to conduct software upgrades to comply with some of the PRC's recommendations.

Although dispirited, Jerry Cerasale, senior vice president for government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association, says, "It's not over." There's still a small hope that the PRC will overturn its decision, he says, or that the BOG will at least delay implementation for technical reasons, as it did for the periodical rates.

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