2008 Fulfillment Service Bureau Survey

The movement of titles between service bureaus this year has been huge, due in large part to the Kable/Palm Coast merger.

By AD Staff
Wednesday, January 2, 2008

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The Kable/Palm Coast merger, which is still in progress, has probably created more tumult and change on the fulfillment side of our business than has occurred in any year since CM began doing its fulfillment service bureau surveys.

It is at times like this that being able to take an overview of the numbers can be most helpful. But it is also at times like this that data is the hardest to nail down. The shifting of titles is surely  affecting our numbers, as fulfillment managers are in the process of moving their accounts.

Before we launch into the actual numbers, we are pleased to welcome two more companies to our list of those surveyed: McMillen Communications and Knowledge Marketing Publishing Services. This makes a total of 8 new companies added over the past two years. These companies aren’t necessarily new businesses, but they are new to the survey.

Number of Titles

The number of all titles reported, 4,392, is down by 36 titles from last year’s high of 4,428; but it’s higher than the 4,284 reported in 2005. Of these titles, 3,674 are print magazines (down 78 from 3,752 in 2006).

The number of non-magazine titles is actually up by 84, moving from 676 to 760—a still small, but rapidly growing number. In many cases these are email newsletters, but they can also be other ancillary products, either publisher/media company based, or not.

Among the print magazine titles, paid titles are down by 167, from 2,839 to 2,712; but controlled titles are up by 109 (from 1,429 to 1,538).

Number of Records

As we drill down in the survey responses from the number of titles to the number of records, it becomes even more interesting. The total number of records at the end of 2007  was up by a total of 34 percent, from 323.8 million to an incredible 435.1 million.

Taking these numbers at face value—with paid records up by 12 percent and controlled records skyrocketing up 122 percent—would be a mistake, however. They are better understood when put into the overall products perspective.

There is another closely related number that has risen substantially in 2007: the number of email lists that are being managed by the fulfillment bureaus. That number stood at 670 lists in 2006; now it’s up by 377, to 1,047 (an increase of 56 percent).

It’s also commonly agreed that the biggest growth in email lists is occurring in the controlled publishing space. This could at least partially explain the huge jump in controlled files in 2007.

Staffing at the Bureaus

There’s another trend afoot in the numbers: the number of staff at fulfillment companies is on the decline (as it is everywhere else in the industry). The number of fulltime staff reported for the 34 companies included in last year’s survey was 6,615. Compare this to the fulltime staff at the 35 companies surveyed this year (4,262), and you get a drop off of 2,353 employees. That represents a 35 percent decline.

On the account representative front, the staffing losses are only in the 9 percent range—decreasing from 629 to 570.

Auditing Support

There’s another interesting tidbit of data to be found in the survey. There is a recorded shift in auditing support. The number of BPA audits supported is up by 312 (moving from 1,123 to 1,435); while the number of ABC audits supported is down by 360 (from 815 to 455).

Industry reports say that the number of consumer publishers claiming a rate base is dropping, but there is no evidence that the number of audited titles is going down.  The numbers could be partially explained by the decline in paid titles by 167  and increase in controlled titles by 109. 

It also could be that publishers are switching audit bureaus, although there’s little evidence of that, and the number of members joining both the audit bureaus seems to be going up. Could  publishers be using technology to do more work inhouse?

We welcome comments on this topic from our readers.   


POSTAL CHANGES:  What Fulfillment Managers are Saying

Below are a few thoughts from fulfillment managers on what their companies are doing to offset mailing costs:

“We are mainly trying to do list hygiene—making sure addresses are clean and correct. We’ve been using the USPS’ Address Element Change (AEC II) program, and we’ve recently started using their NCOAlink software, which cleans files prior to the actual mailing. This achieves a double effect. The mail becomes more deliverable and reduces the chance of address change notification back to us.”

—Steven Jacobs, fulfillment director, American Media Inc.


“We have been utilizing co-mailing for the past 2 years. The fulfillment bureau is not directly involved with this decision, other than providing files. But our fulfillment bureau has been helpful in providing updated software, processes for new regulations such as delivery point verification, etc.”

—Suzanne Hejkal, fulfillment manager, August Home Publishing


“For our magazine, we’re doing co-mailing where your publication gets grouped with other publications of the same size, which then get sent through a larger mail group. The savings are much larger with a bunch of mail going to in the stream. We’re also working with international vendors to try and hold price points. We’ve been good at going out and finding the least expensive.”

—Kevin Mullen, publications fulfillment manager, Archaeological Institute of America