Textbook Is First to Use Clickable Paper for Access to Multimedia Content

It seems that Facebook has discovered what we all know – that print is the way to get your message across. The launch issue of Grow, “a quarterly magazine for business leaders” – by Facebook – quietly made its appearance in business class lounges at Heathrow and a few more exclusive spots in and around London in early June. Facebook explains its new print offering: The program is designed to deliver content in different formats that suit our audience. We know that business leaders have limited time for long reads at work, so we’ve also created a physical version with journeys in mind. We’re distributing this to clients directly as part of our marketing communications, and in selected airport and train business lounges where we know they are often to be found. Click Read More below for additional information.

If you’re a commercial mailer of flats and periodicals, brace yourself. Customers are facing an unexpected and steep increase in USPS mailing rates sometime this summer — even while service standards remain miserably low. The first indication that something was seriously wrong with operations at the USPS came last July, when newly appointed PG Louis DeJoy changed trucking regulations. On-time mail deliveries plummeted. It was so bad that a Washington DC District Court judge ruled they must reverse the changes in October and file daily paperwork with their progress. Now, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) tells us to expect an additional rate increase this summer of anywhere between 5.5% for first-class and up to 7.5% for marketing flats and periodicals. (That’s on top of recent rate changes that went into effect last month.) More at source: https://freeportpress.com/serious-questions-around-the-usps-and-rates/

German media giant Bertelsmann said Wednesday that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster in a megadeal that would reshape the U.S. publishing industry. Penguin Random House, already the largest American publisher, will buy the New York-based Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King, Hillary Clinton and John Irving, from TV and film company ViacomCBS for $2.17 billion in cash. “Simon & Schuster strengthens Bertelsmann’s footprint globally, and (particularly) in the U.S., its second-largest market,” the Guetersloh, Germany-based company said in a statement. The purchase of Simon & Schuster would reduce the so-called Big Five of American publishing — which also includes HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Macmillan — to four.