BISG Annual Meeting Examines Sustainability on a Number of Levels (publishersweekly.com)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) gave an early Christmas present to debt collectors, at the expense of the very consumers they are mandated to protect. Ignoring a mountain of public comments from citizens, cyber security experts and consumer advocacy groups including Keep Me Posted (KMP) detailing the multitude of harms and risks unleashed by its proposed rules, the Bureau plowed ahead and finalized a sweeping deregulation that will subject society to an unwelcome digital deluge of menace and fraud. Under the guise of so-called modernization, the CFPB will give the green light to 3rd-party debt collectors to exploit Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter messaging — as well as emails and text messaging — in their bounty hunting efforts. The new rules would further allow for an unlimited quantity of such unsolicited digital contacting — while simultaneously expanding the frequency of phone calls to 7 times per week per alleged debt. Meanwhile, the safe, secure and discreet practice of mailing paper letters will remain an option for professional firms seeking reliable communications options. To be clear, America’s consumers did not ask for this. And they will not even be given the option to opt-in to any such digital communications they might prefer.

Gap Inc., which was for decades a fixture at shopping malls around the country, said Thursday that it will be closing 220 of its namesake Gap stores — or one-third of its store base — by early 2024. That will result in 80 percent of its remaining Gap stores being in off-mall locations. As part of its restructuring, Gap Inc. said it also plans to close 130 of its Banana Republic stores in North America in three years. The retail organization detailed a three-year plan that calls for closing what amounts to 30 percent of the company’s Gap and Banana Republic stores in North America and focusing on outlets and its e-commerce business.

Publishers who still mail print editions to subscribers are facing challenges on at least a couple of fronts. For one, new statistics released by the U.S Postal Service show that 86.1% of Periodicals were delivered on time against the USPS service standard in Q4, a decrease of 2.8% from the prior quarter. In contrast, 91.4% of first class mail was delivered on time, a 1.2% decrease, and marketing mail held steady with a 95.2% on-time delivery rate. This may or may not have any real impact. But in a related development, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is speaking out against recent postal policy changes that she says are hurting local and rural newspapers.