Opt Out of Snail Mail

Gone are the days when you knew your mail carrier by name, or at least waved and said hello as he drove past. Now, not only do you have to worry about strangers coming into your neighborhood and rifling through your mail, you can’t trust the employees assigned to sort it and deliver it.

A Minneapolis mail handler was recently charged with stealing over $80,000 of Best Buy Reward Zone certificates, buying up lots of electronic goodies, and reselling the stuff to his co-workers. What was once a symbol of a civilized society is now an easy target for theft, identify fraud and waste.

Online recordkeeping may be a safer solution.

E-delivery and online access to account information — including banking and investments, rebates, gift certificates and refunds — is safe, convenient and timely, not to mention environmentally-friendly. It's time to take advantage of this service, and in most cases, sign-up's a breeze. Then, proceed directly to:

1. Cleaning out those file cabinets stuffed with obsolete prospectuses, 10-year old account statements and receipts for things you don’t even own anymore.

2. Creating a new system for managing Web addresses, login IDs, and passwords (like a simple address book that you used to use for snail mail). Keep it in a safe place near your computer, check your accounts regularly, and print out only what you really need on paper.

Yes, even those Best Buy Reward Zone certificates are available online. They send you an email when your certificates are ready; then you just log in, print them out and run to the store (or better yet, shop online).

Computers and electronic recordkeeping aren’t going away. But maybe snail mail should. Or at least offer a choice to “opt out.”

Big Book Overhauls

If you want a quick barometer of the state of the economy, pick up a newsstand magazine. Two years ago, they were as thick as small-town phonebooks – you had to roll up your sleeves and WORK to find editorial content amid all the ads. Today, even the widest circulating brands feel closer to pamphlets than magazines. Ad pages have been slashed – and so has editorial staff.

But despite – or maybe because of – the economic pressure, there’s still exciting creative work being done in print. One of the most blogged-about magazine design shops right now is Pentagram. Pentagram is headed up by Luke Hayman, who has become the Timbalaland of major magazine design, working behind the scenes to give books like the Atlantic much-needed overhauls.

Here’s Hayman sharing a few thoughts on effective magazine design – thoughts which apply to custom publishing as well as newsstand publishing.