USPS Files for July 2025 Postage Rate Increase 

On April 9, 2025, the United States Postal Service (USPS) filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of mailing services price changes to take effect July 13, 2025. The proposed rates, if approved, would raise product prices by approximately 7.4 percent (average across all mail classes). The filing includes First Class, Marketing Mail, Periodicals, and Bound Printed Matter. The PRC must make a ruling on or before May 30, 2025. 

Proposed average increase within each mail class:
7.4%  - First Class Mail
9.4%  - Periodicals Class
7.4% - Special Services
7.4% - Marketing Mail

See rate filing. 

Related: 
USPS Announces 2025 Postage Rate Increase Effective July 13 (Printing Impressions)

USPS July 2025 Market Dominant Price Change Webinar (slides and recording ) (USPS)

USPS July 2025 Market Dominant Price Change Webinar Q&A Document (USPS)

Proposed Changes to USPS Annual Promotions

In its April 9, 2025 rate filing, the USPS announced its proposed Annual Promotions and Incentives for 2026. The lineup includes some changes from this year. And, the USPS proposed a new promotion, Catalog Insights, which would start in July 2025 if approved. USPS promotions are a great way for magazine and catalog publishers mailing by Marketing Mail Class to mitigate postage rate increases. 

Overall changes to note:

• Four primary promotions (Integrated Technology; Tactile, Sensory & Interactive; Continuous Contact; and First-Class Mail Advertising) will each provide a 5% discount to the mailer (increased from 3% and 4%).
• One new primary promotion, Catalog Insights, will yield a 10% discount (AND will be added for 2025). More info below.
• The Reply Mail IMbA promotion will not be offered in 2026.
• Both Informed Delivery and Sustainability remain Add-On Promotions, each providing a 1% discount. Use one or both, but only in addition to a primary promotion.

The new Catalog Insights primary promotion will provide a 10% discount for qualifying catalogs, which must be at least twelve pages, bound, include a list of products or services offered, and allow an order to be placed. The discount applies to every piece of catalog mail in a mailing, with no minimum volume requirements. Qualifying Marketing Mail Letters, Flats, and Parcels will be eligible for the discount, which will run from Oct. 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. The registration period is Aug. 15, 2025 – June 30, 2026. This significant discount enables qualifying catalog mailers to effectively offset the July postage rate increase.

For more information:

• Listen to the recent USPS July 2025 Market Dominant Price Change Webinar and refer to webinar slides 4-8.
• Reference the rate filing, document pages 45-51. 

Click to enlarge the calendar image below:

The USPS Tactile, Sensory & Integrated Promotion is Underway. Don't Miss Out! 

The 2025 USPS Tactile, Sensory & Integrated (TSI) promotion is running now through July 31, 2025 (registration is ongoing). Magazine publishers mailing by Marketing Mail Class can save 4% with this promotion by using Specialty Inks (think: metallic, neon); Sensory Treatments (think: soft touch, reticulated UV, grit, UV spot or flood gloss, embossing); or Interactive Elements (think: 3-dimensional treatments, scratch-offs). And if you are ALREADY using any of these? Well, that’s just #FreeMoney. Don’t wait to save. See the USPS guidebook for details below. Or email us at info@lanepress.com.

2025 Tactile, Sensory & Interactive Guidebook

Take the USPS Integrated Technology Promotion for Any Six Months in 2025

Enroll in the USPS Integrated Technology promotion for any consecutive six months in 2025 to Save 3% on Marketing Mail magazine postage. Registration is ongoing. The Mobile Shopping and AI options are LOW-HANGING FRUIT.

Mobile Shopping: Link from your print magazine (via QR Code or digital watermark) to your mobile-optimized website where a users can purchase a product or make a donation. 

AI: Your magazine includes copy or images that were created by leveraging generative AI tools. The copy can be a call to action, directional copy, or supporting text (of at least one sentence). If qualifying for images, there must be at least one, and it must be clearly related to your mailpiece messaging. 

Check out the USPS Guidebook for details. Or email us at info@lanepress.com.

2025 Integrated Technology Guidebook

How MIT Maximizes Editorial Value With Newsletters

Newsletters are a critical piece of MIT's subscription funnel. But growth doesn't come from a slick sign-up page or the odd social promotion. A holistic approach is required, which brings together consistent calls-to-action and smart content reuse.

By Esther Kezia-Thorpe / Digital Content Next

For subscription-driven publishers, newsletters can be a valuable way of building relationships with potential paying readers. But it can be a challenge to effectively promote newsletters and justify the extra work required to create them. However, MIT Technology review has seen success with a portfolio of editorially-driven newsletters published across the week. Key to their growth strategy is effectively reusing the newsletter content online to drive sign-ups, and maximizing opportunities to promote the newsletters across all MIT activity.  

“Once someone has signed up to our newsletters, they’re two or three times more likely to become a subscriber,” said Niall Firth, executive editor, newsroom at MIT Technology Review.

With newsletters forming a key part of the publication’s subscriber funnel, promotion and growth of these products is a priority. Here’s how MIT Technology review structures its newsletter portfolio and promotes sign-ups to begin building those vital reader relationships.

Read more

Google Is Found Guilty of Operating an Ad Tech Monopoly (!)

By Allison Schiff / Ad Exchanger
(Published Apr. 17, 2025)

Serious news headlines don’t typically include exclamation marks, but this isn’t just any news story.

On Thursday morning, US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema published her long-awaited ruling in US v. Google, finding Google guilty of having monopolized two online advertising markets.

According to Judge Brinkema, Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power in the open web display publisher ad server market and the open-web display ad exchange market.”

She also determined that Google unlawfully tied its publisher ad server (DFP) with its ad exchange (AdX).

Judge Brinkema wasn’t convinced, however, by the government’s argument that there is a relevant market for open web display advertiser ad networks. Can’t win ’em all.

Read more

Cool Cover: Medicine@Brown

"Our collaboration always begins with a predesign meeting wherein our editorial team presents the issue’s stories to our creative team in an unstructured, ‘here’s the cool stuff we’ve learned’ style to get creative inspiration flowing. For this cover story, the writer explained that there’s so much about RNA that scientists don’t know—how could we convey this sense of missing information to the reader?

“We thought a type cover could be effective and a nice departure for our magazine. We played with dropping the letters R, N, and A out of the headline to conceptually represent piecing together a message with missing parts. Decoding it gives the reader a taste of the frustration that scientists feel."

Kris Cambra, Editor, Medicine@ Brown
Kelly McMurray, Creative Director, 2communiqué

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Promote Your Enviro Cred Without Greenwashing

This kit, from the nonprofit Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE), provides resources designed to help you showcase your sustainability efforts authentically and transparently while avoiding common pitfalls of greenwashing. The tools include an integrity checklist, a guide to prevention mechanisms, and a multiphase strategy plan template. Up your game further by taking IAE’s new Green Shield Course, a social science-guided training and certification course that aims to improve the integrity of environmental advertising and communications. Free.  tinyurl.com/GreenwashToolkit

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