Pro Carton launches new home-schooling initiative, EduCarton

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics through the first two weeks of the fiscal third quarter. For the week ending April 15 and the third consecutive week, First-Class Mail on-time delivery performance was nearly 94 percent. Through the first two weeks of the third quarter, the average time for delivery of a mailpiece across the postal network was 2.4 days. Third quarter service performance scores covering April 1 through April 15 included: *First-Class Mail: 93.6 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 5.7 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter. *Marketing Mail: 95.4 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter. *Periodicals: 87.7 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of 5.8 percentage points from the fiscal second quarter.

Urban Outfitters, Inc. announced net sales for the three months and year ended January 31, 2021. Total Company net sales for the three months ended January 31, 2021, decreased 6.9% over the same period last year to $1.09 billion. Comparable Retail segment net sales decreased 7% due to negative retail store net sales as stronger conversion rates could not offset the reduced store traffic caused by the coronavirus pandemic and related occupancy restrictions. Lower store net sales were partially offset by strong double-digit growth in digital channel sales. By brand, comparable Retail segment net sales increased 6% at Free People and decreased 6% at Urban Outfitters and 11% at the Anthropologie Group. Wholesale segment net sales decreased 7%. “I am pleased to report that all three brands registered nice improvement in ‘comp’ sales trends in January from that delivered during the Holiday period,” said Richard A. Hayne, Chief Executive Officer. “We are particularly pleased with how well the brands transitioned into February. Customer reaction to our spring assortments has been quite strong and ‘comps’ for the first week of the new fiscal year were positive at each brand,” finished Mr. Hayne.

Since 2005, 2,100 newspapers have closed, almost one-quarter of the 9,000 newspapers that were being published in 2004, according to a report from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Can newspapers be saved? The Rebuild Local News coalition has an ambitious plan.RLN is not turning to government for a bailout; it sees it as an ally. The gist of the plan is for Americans to step up and help save local news, which is essential to ensure communities have a watchdog to fight corruption and waste. One bipartisan idea is a $250 refundable tax credit used to buy local news subscriptions or as a donation to a local nonprofit news endeavor.