Originally Posted by
John M Bailey
My friends, I also recieve several woodworking magazines and catalogs including WOOD, Woodsmith, FWW, and others. I hear, understand, and agree with your complaints about woodworking magazines and newspapers.
I work in the print industry. The company I work for is the second largest printer in the world. All of the publishers and printers are in big trouble. This has been reality for us for several years. Now we have a recession which is hammering nails into the coffins of many publishers and titles and printers. But what you must understand is that they were in trouble long before the recession.
Of all the costs of magazine production, there is one cost the publisher and printer cannot change or control. This is the cost of Postage. Postal charges have risen faster than any other cost for the last 15 years. The postage costs have now surpassed the cost of producing the magazines. Think about that. The publishers are trying to cut costs as much as possible, but the greatest cost of the magazine is out of their hands.
I have worked in the finishing department for 16 years, I have first hand knowledge of these things. The USPS is in constant change, the regulations and sorting of mass mailings are constantly being changed. The USPS spends millions on some new sorting or barcode regulation or technology, then the printers spend many more millions of dollars to keep up with that change, then the USPS changes that regulation or method before the printers have time to comply.
Everyone can see that almost every company, business, industry, every part of the economy is doing what ever is possible to contain costs. In the print business, the big players are acually printing a large precent of the titles below cost. Then we have the USPS, who is hemoraging money. We have all heard of "spending a million to save a thousand", but the USPS spends tens of millions to save a couple of hundred.
I'm done ranting now
:D