Sales of Print Books End January on High Note (publishersweekly.com)

The United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of price changes to take effect Jan. 21, 2018. The new prices, if approved, include a one cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp from 49 cents to 50 cents. Postcard stamps and metered letters would also have a one cent increase. Today’s filing does not include any price change for single-piece letters being mailed to international destinations or for additional ounces for letters. The proposed prices would raise Mailing Services product prices approximately 1.9 percent, and most Shipping Services products will average a 3.9 percent price increase. While Mailing Services price increases are limited based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Shipping Services prices are adjusted strategically, according to market conditions and the need to maintain affordable services for customers. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Condé Nast has shuttered its print edition of Teen Vogue, adjusting the frequency of various titles, and laying off approximately 80 staffers, Folio: has learned. The cuts represent approximately 2.5 percent of its 3,000 employees, and the company “is expected to complete its final round of cuts by next Thursday,” reports WWD. In addition to the changes at Teen Vogue, GQ, Glamour, Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, W and Condé Nast Traveler are among the company’s magazines set to see decreases in print frequency. Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, Brides and The New Yorker, however, will remain unaffected and continue to print at the same frequency. Click Read More below for additional information.

The newspapers, like the staff, are leaner than they were a decade ago, with fewer reporters to write about crime, the school board and youth sports and to craft obituaries for their aging readership. And now they’re facing a new and unexpected threat: President Trump’s confrontational trade policies. Last year, in one of the Trump administration’s first actions on trade, the U.S. government imposed tariffs on Canadian lumber. A few months later, it added tariffs on Canadian uncoated groundwood paper. The result has been a jump in the cost of newsprint, the second-biggest operating expense, after salaries, for most newspapers. Rogers and fellow news executives across the country are now bracing for price increases that could exceed 30 percent, forcing tough budget decisions and potentially driving some community papers out of business. “This may be the thing that pushes us across the line,” Rogers said. “We’re all kind of close to that edge.” Click Read More below for additional information.