In 2022, on the day they met, Zoe Otto and Orlena Fella decided they wanted to start a newspaper at their school, Manhattan's High School for Mathematics, Science, and Engineering. They would call it The Echo, and they hoped it would build some community pride at their specialized STEM school—a place otherwise lacking that conventional Friday-night-football spirit. And they were sure about one thing: the paper had to be in print. 'I don't think we ever considered it only being a we...

Last year was not a good year for direct mail in the US, as volumes and spend plummeted. But SMBs in the US and Canada haven't abandoned printed marketing materials, with 58% of marketers surveyed at SMBs planning to increase their use of printed marketing materials, and 43% expecting to expand their use of direct mail. That's according to a recent report from Ascend2 and Allegra. The results are based on an August 2023 survey of 441 marketing and sales decision-makers at small and mid-sized bu...

Direct mail continues to bea strong channel for marketers with plenty of associated spending. But after a couple of years of growth, direct mail volumes tanked last year, as did marketers' investment in the channel, according to a Winterberry Group report. In fact, direct mail volumes dropped by 13.4% last year to under 63 (62.94) billion, with the year-over-year decline of almost 10 billion pieces marking 'the largest pullback since the 2009 recession,' per the analysis. The decline com...

US advertising and marketing media spend grew by 5.1% year-over-year in 2023 to total $515.1 billion, a slower rate of growth than seen in 2022 and in 2021. Offline media was responsible in large part for the slowdown, as a 'down year for offline' pushed spending down on these channels by 3.8% to $195.1 billion, erasing gains made in 2022, per a report from Winterberry Group. Offline media's drop in 2023 came after increases in the couple of years prior, in so doing bucking the 4-year comp...

Brands have many channels to choose from. But there is one that stands out in this age of generative AI. Print. Direct mail. Junk mail. Marketers say direct mail helps them: Improve their company's brand and image — 84% Drive leads for their business — 85% Generate brand awareness for their business — 87% Moreover, marketers believe direct mail can help them: Increase brand awareness — 65% Generate leads and sales — 57% Drive traffic to a we...

The linear pay TV business had its worst third-quarter ever with about 889,000 subscribers cutting the cord, according to an analysis by MoffettNathanson. Traditional cable, satellite and telco distributors lost 11.7% of their subscribers compared to a year ago. The new virtual multichannel video programming distributors — such as YouTubeTV — are not picking up all of the customers dropping traditional subscriptions, MoffettNathanson found. Only 21.7% of cord cutters signed up ...