USPS Reports Steady Service Performance Improvements Across All Mail Categories

The Village Voice is ending its weekly print product, which has been distributed for free in the New York City area since 1996. Back then, “Craigslist was in its infancy, Google and Facebook weren’t yet glimmers in the eyes of their founders, and alternative weeklies—and newspapers everywhere—were still packed with classified advertising,” Village Voice owner Peter Barbey stated. “Clearly, a lot has changed. That business has moved online—and so has the Voice’s audience, which expects us to do what we do ... every day, across a range of media, from words and pictures to podcasts, video, and even other forms of print publishing.” The alt-weekly paper, founded in 1955 and known for its coverage of New York City’s culture, social and political issues, as well as nightlife, will live online. Click Read More below for more of the story.

The Minnesota Daily, a campus publication dating back 120 years, has apparently given up its print edition for good. The newspaper cut off print in 2020—supposedly on a temporary basis. “To the University community, It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing that the print edition of the Minnesota Daily has been canceled for the summer,” wrote then editor Cleo Krejci in an editorial. But now it is apparent that the daily has never been restored, and that it won’t be in the future.

Unit sales of print books hit a new high for the week ended March 13, 2021, compared to the similar week in 2020. According to NPD BookScan, units jumped 36.5% last week over the week ended March 14, 2020. A portion of the gain was due to some weakness in 2020 caused by the early impact of the pandemic; unit sales fell 6.2% compared to the similar week in 2019. But, for the most part, the unit sales gain was driven by continued solid demand for print books. Large unit gains, as has been the case for most of 2021, occurred in all the major segments, and the increase was also helped by the release of two adult nonfiction books that hit the top two slots on the overall bestseller list. Nicole Lepera’s How to Do the Work was #1, selling more than 53,000 copies, while Dana Perino’s Everything Will Be Okay was second, selling nearly 51,000 copies. A third new nonfiction title also had a solid first week, with The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson landing in fifth place on the overall list, selling over 41,000 copies. Overall, print unit adult nonfiction sales increased 27.6% over the comparable week in 2020.