Mother Earth News Subscribers to Receive Paperless Renewal Option Via Zumbox

Subscribers will be given the option to receive their renewal notices as well as renew their subscriptions directly from their "Zumbox."

By Chandra Johnson-Greene
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Ogden Publications’ Mother Earth News announced this week that it will be the first magazine to deliver paperless renewal notices to its subscribers via Zumbox, a Web-based platform that delivers paperless mail using U.S. street addresses. 

Subscribers to the sustainable lifestyle title will be given the option to receive their renewal notices as well as renew their subscriptions directly from their “Zumbox,” which is accessible via Zumbox.com. Unlike e-mail, there is a corresponding Zumbox—a digital mailbox—for every U.S. street address, which enables postal mail to be sent as digital files and received online with no paper or scanning. It also differs from e-mail because, according to the company, it is spam-free and publishers can use information they already have on file as opposed to having to collect e-mail addresses.

“In addition to clearly reducing environmental impact, Zumbox represents a powerful way for us to communicate with our subscribers,” Bryan Welch, publisher and editorial director, Mother Earth News, said in a statement. “Our audience has already started to embrace this paperless postal system, which could become another content distribution channel for us as well.”

According to production and circulation manager Bob Cucciniello, the cost savings of the paperless renewal option is currently non-existent because Ogden is still mailing out renewal notices along with the Zumbox notices, “but once we have some people signed up for it, we’ll see a small savings,” he told AD. “In terms of printing and postal costs, we should see savings since we send out 30,000-40,000 renewal notices each month, but it’s too early to tell exactly how much. The main goal is to give the subscribers another option to receiving paper renewals.”

So far, Cucciniello added, 120 Mother Earth News subscribers have elected to receive the Zumbox renewal notices. “Even if it doesn’t turn out to be a popular option for subscribers, it still represents another way that Mother Earth News is allowing its subscribers to become more green,” he said. “It allows them to take a more active role in the partnership for a better environment.”