What's happening to your subs copy deliveries with the postal dispute? In my own experience the two weeklies that I subscribe to are arriving a week after I would usually expect to get them, but what feedback are your subscribers giving you?
If the all-out strike goes ahead, what contingency plans do you have?

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Don Brown
www.magazine-group.co.uk The UK's number one online subscription agent

Hi Don,

I started a thread last week on a similar note regarding alternatives to Royal Mail (which as it failed to garner a single response I effectively ended that thread too!).

We are fortunate in that around 75% of our circulation is in the EC, E14 and other central London postcodes and so we route much of our volume through hand delivery, specifically DX. As DX also have some UK coverage (mainly town/city centres) we're fairly light users of Royal Mail.

We do have some titles that are still sent via Royal Mail as they are very time-sensitive and their deadlines mean that they would lose a day if we gave the work to DX but given the inevitable delays that a national strike will cause this is being reconsidered.

More generally I would anticipate a push towards online content being more frequently updated and subscribers receiving more electronic communication, and perhaps greater attention towards digital distribution. But we shall see.  

Any words of wisdom your end?

Darryl

Having turned poster to gamekeeper in the last 6 months this is the first strike in 17 years that I haven't had to prepare for. Given the number of enquiries I've been feilding this past week from publishing customers, I thought it might be worth joing this discussion.

For those that may not be aware, Downstream Access Mail (DSA) is delivered by Royal Mail. Whilst past experience has shown me that there is a small advantage to using a DSA service during a period of strike action, given the time available it is unlikely that my own employer, DHL, along with TNT, Citipost DSA and one or two other DSA mail providers, will be able to implement a solution before the strikes begin. Hand delivery providers such as DX, Citipost and CMS and B2C courier firms are your only alternative options to RM delivery although it is also worth mentioning that they are pretty much restricted to city centre locations and business adresses only, with DX being the only supplier with anything like a national network. However, in the event that you do get one of these companies to agree to carry your mail, you may well find that a similar time issue could restrict your ability to implement a solution before the strikes begin.

Unless your pockets are deep and volumes significant, my advise would be to forget about looking for an alternative provider and consider if you are going to publish the printed journal that week (relevant to weeklies). If so, also consider if you are going to wrap and address the copies as usual and where they can be stored until they can be mailed.