Direct Marketing Association in support of new cost-cutting ideas at USPS to match lower mail volume, avoid insolvency

Kendall Sinclair

NEW YORK , August 12, 2011 (press release) – The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) applauds Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe for proposing new cost-cutting ideas for the US Postal Service (USPS) for Congress and the postal community to examine. To return to financial stability, the Postal Service has stated that it is seeking legislative changes to allow for network and workforce adjustments.

The Postal Service faces imminent insolvency due to declining mail volume. Insolvency of the USPS will harm the $1 trillion "mail" segment of our nation's economy and the millions of jobs it supports. Mailers can no longer fund the excess capacity in the USPS network and its corresponding employee complement through postage. USPS must right-size its network to match the new reality of lower mail volume.

“Every effort to bring the postal service back from the brink of insolvency must be examined,” said Jerry Cerasale, DMA’s senior vice president of government affairs. “We applaud the Postmaster General for expanding that dialogue.”


About Direct Marketing Association (DMA)

The Direct Marketing Association (www.the-dma.org) is the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA advocates standards for responsible marketing, promotes relevance as the key to reaching consumers with desirable offers, and provides cutting-edge research, education, and networking opportunities to improve results throughout the end-to-end direct marketing process. Founded in 1917, DMA today represents companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In 2010, marketers – commercial and nonprofit – spent $153.3 billion on direct marketing, which accounted for 54.2% of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $1.798 trillion in incremental sales. In 2010, direct marketing accounted for 8.3% of total US gross domestic product. Also in 2010, there were 1.4 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported 8.4 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 9.8 million US jobs.

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