L Brands Reports June 2017 Sales

The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI) released the June results for its monthly survey on capacity and lead times for soft cover and hard cover books. As demand has skyrocketed and supply chain woes continue to hamper all segments of manufacturing, BMI put together the survey to get a better idea of what manufacturers were facing and what publishers should expect. According to responses regarding hard cover books, the average manufacturer was running at 90% of their capacity, a slight drop from May’s 91%. The average lead time for completed hard cover books was up from 91 days, to 104 days. For soft cover books, capacity usage went from 92% down to 91% and the average lead time was up to 84 days, based on 15 responses.

Keep US Posted, an alliance consisting of consumer interests, industry groups, newspapers, nonprofits and businesses, applauds the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations for directing the Postal Regulatory Commission, which governs the U.S. Postal Service, to study the impact of planned postage increases. The Committee’s action, included in the 2023 spending package, is a direct response to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s announcement that stamp prices will increase July 31 and every six months thereafter, despite this year’s bipartisan postal reform law designed to fiscally stabilize the Postal Service and prevent unnecessary postage hikes. “It is destructive for Postal Service leadership to squeeze every last drop of revenue from the mail at the expense of the American people,” said Keep US Posted Executive Director and former Congressman Kevin Yoder (R-Kans.). “In just a decade, Americans could be paying well over $1 to mail a single letter. Using the mail will become unaffordable for American families, as well as newspapers, nonprofits, and businesses that depend on the Postal Service. These excessive postage increases will decrease volume and revenue so much that it will ultimately hurt the Postal Service’s 650,000 workers and their ability to keep delivering for our country. Projected mail decline will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Remember when Banned Books Week used to be billed as a “celebration” of the freedom to read? This year, Banned Books Week (running October 1–7) will once again be more like a call to arms, as new surveys and reports show that a well-organized political movement is continuing to drive record numbers of book bans across the nation. For more than 40 years, the ALA’s Banned Books Week has spotlighted attempts to censor books in libraries and schools, uniting librarians, booksellers, publishers, and readers in support of free expression. Reading advocate, writer, and actor LeVar Burton is leading this year’s Banned Books Week as honorary chair.