A New View of Magazine Cost Control
Cost control is a way of life in today鈥檚 publishing environment. Yet cost-saving efforts virtually always carry an element of bad news. And the worst news stems from cuts that make a publication less viable over the longer term. It鈥檚 especially painful when we鈥檙e experiencing a resurgence in magazines鈥攑articularly print versions. According to a May 25, 2023, Fortune article by David Miller, 鈥淭ech Giants Have Gutted Publishing. Now Digital Fatigue Is Giving Print a New Lease on Life,鈥� overall magazine…
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Adobe Creative Suite Introduces New Design Features
Adobe recently rolled out significant updates to its Creative Suite, bringing notable changes to Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Several of these updates integrate generative AI into the Adobe design programs, allowing users to alter images like never before. Keep reading below for a summary of these recent updates and tips for how they can be used to enhance your projects. Adobe InDesign Updates Enhanced Style Packs Style Packs, introduced last year, have undergone substantial enhancements. The number of available…
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U.S. Postal Service Proposes New Prices for 2024
The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced its next price increase, which is set to take effect on January 21, 2024. This change will affect First Class, Periodical, Standard/Marketing Mail, Package Services, Bound Printed Matter, Media/Library Mail and other miscellaneous USPS fees. As of October 2023, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has not yet approved these increases. This announcement marks the first increase of the 2024 calendar year, after two price increases that took effect in 2023. USPS cites inflationary…
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How Book Covers Change (And Don鈥檛)
No one would argue about the value of a well-designed book cover. As author Paul Jenkins reminds us in a 2022 Brilliantio article, 鈥淲hy Book Covers Are Important,鈥� the book鈥檚 cover: Establishes the reader鈥檚 first impression of the book Helps the book stand out on a crowded retail shelf, real or virtual Communicates important information about the book鈥檚 content and genre Piques the reader鈥檚 curiosity and encourages them to pick up the book Creates a unifying brand for an author…
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2024 USPS Mail Growth Incentive
The United States Postal Service recently approved a new program incentivizing mail owners to increase their mail volume during the 2024 calendar year. This brand-new Mail Growth Incentive program offers a 30% credit for mail owners on qualifying First-Class and Marketing mail volume increases between 2023 and 2024. This change only affects mail owners that send more than one million pieces of mail annually and could lead to significant savings for growing companies that send large quantities of marketing or…
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Why You Should Onshore Your Book Production
The pandemic challenged book publishers as never before. The good news was book demand rose in many categories with people sheltering at home and seeking entertainment. The bad news was the increasingly global book manufacturing and distribution supply chain was severely challenged. Briefly, here鈥檚 what happened: Global labor shortage Global shipping issues Global paper shortage Global ink shortage Domestic manufacturing strain Where We Stand Now Clearly, some normalization occurred, though many problems linger. There are still price and supply-chain challenges,…
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