MAILCENTER: Movement Battles Mail Haters

A number of mailing and fulfillment firms and associations have launched Mail Moves America (MMA), a coalition to counter what is seen as a growing threat by consumer groups to stop delivery of direct mail. Among the high profile anti-mail groups are an environmental organization known as GreenDimes and an anti-consumerism group called the New American Dream. Sixteen-employee GreenDimes, which recently received $20.5 million from Tudor Investment, charges a $36 annual fee to manage individual accounts to remove clients from mailing lists. So far, 50,000 people have signed up, says founder Pankaj Shah. The New York Times recently profiled Shah and other anti-mailing groups, including 5,000-member 41 Pounds and 6,000-member Stopthejunkmail.com.

GreenDimes has launched a petition to get Congress to create a national Do-Not-Mail list, along the lines of the Do-Not-Call list managed by the Federal Trade Commission. That list, with 148 million phone numbers, adds 300,000 new ones monthly. Congress declined to include mailing, viewing it as less intrusive than telemarketing.

The proposed national bill, and similar ones being considered at the state level (see below), is also promoted as an environmental initiative intended to reduce waste printing. Reduction in identity theft and privacy concerns are also raised as their bases, even though general advertising mail does not contain personal information. (A Presidential Taskforce found that only 3% of ID theft is attributable to mail.)

The $56 billion direct mail and catalog business—the figure includes creative, printing and postage—generates $700 billion in sales, says the Direct Marketing Assn., which helped organize the Mail Moves America advocacy group. A 2005 USPS Household Diary study indicated that 85% of U.S. households usually read some or all of the advertising mail they receive, saying it makes shopping more convenient, gives additional choices and saves them money.

Despite the growth of e-mail and the rise of the Internet, says MMA, the U.S. Mail remains a critical means to conduct information exchange and commerce for more than 146 million American households, businesses and nonprofit groups.

Because advertising mail provides more than half the revenue to make this possible, its loss could raise postal rates, curtail customer service and ultimately damage the larger U.S. economy, the coalition contends.

At the state level, signs of anti-mail efforts show an increase. Through 2006, only four states had introduced anti-mail bills. In 2007 that jumped to 18 bills introduced in 15 states. To date, none have advanced to law, but eight automatically carry over to 2008 legislative calendars.

According to Mark Nuzzaco, government affairs director for print equipment trade group NPES (the Assn. for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies), “Failure in even one state is not an option, because one successful bill could snowball.” With some 45% of print distributed by mail, “the results of such a curtailment would be very serious,” he says.