Reduce Your Printing Bill Now

Publishing a great magazine vs. saving money is a false choice; you can do both.

With global instability and the threat of recession ever looming on the horizon, cost-cutting is on everyone’s mind more than usual — and when is it ever not top-of-mind for publishers? When publishers fix their eyes on the balance sheet and scan for the big ticket items, the three P’s inevitably rise to the top: paper, printing and postage.

While it might be tempting to assume that these costs are fixed and inflexible, there are a few minor changes that almost any publication can make that yield big savings when the next print bill arrives. Before cutting staff or going digital, talk to your printer and ask if you can do one of the following:

1. Co-mail. If your in-home dates are flexible, and your print deadline can be met in time, you might save 10% or more on your postage costs. To enjoy the savings, your magazine will join a co-mail pool of 30-35 other publications and essentially share the ride as they make their way to postal sorting facilities across the country. Your magazines won’t hit all readers’ hands on the same day, but they won’t do that at a normal periodical rate, either. But it does mean that your magazine must be ready in time to occupy a slot in the co-mail pool. If you’re late to the party, your seat will go to someone else and you’ll have to wait for the next available pool to get into the mailstream. This is when efficiency really pays off.

2. Lose weight. You may be printing on a heavier paper than you really need. The difference between an 80-pound paper and a 65-pound paper will probably be missed by all but your most vigilant readers. But those 15 pounds can mean big savings for your print budget. And by choosing the appropriate finish (matte vs. gloss), you can significantly guard against complaints of flimsiness and show-through. But beware of going too thin: If your page count is too low and your paper is too light, you run the risk of failing the dreaded droop test (that’s exactly what it sounds like: the post office holds your magazine out over the edge of a table and if it droops — meaning it won’t feed cleanly through their mail-sorting equipment — you fail and must fold and tab your publication).

3. Get in on the discounts. Believe it or not, the postal service offers content- and production-based incentives that can save you money for being innovative. For example, your designer isn’t the only one who likes that reticulated varnish for the cover. The post office likes it, too (it satisfies a preference for “tactile” mail pieces). And for a real head-scratcher, the post office will even give you a discount for using AI-generated content in some contexts. We don’t make the rules; we just report them.

A further word about ditching print altogether and going digital as a cost-cutting measure: Be careful what you wish for. Your editorial costs won’t budge; in fact, they’ll probably increase as your team ditches its predictable print schedule in favor of feeding the voracious online beast of a digital magazine brand.

And your advertisers won’t be happy. Sure, in the short run, you can offer them metrics that were either unavailable or prohibitively expensive to a printed publication. Seeing live performance data sounds great until you see the actual data. Ask yourself: When was the last time you personally clicked on a banner ad?

Talk to your printer before you do anything rash. They likely maintain client relationships with publishers of all sizes and shapes. The odds are very good that the experience of one of their other magazines can benefit you and yours. Your printer wants to make money, but they want to keep your business. You get farther in business with a partner than a vendor.

Quarto has more cost-saving ideas, not to mention a robust network of printing experts. Talk to us at contact@quartocreative.com.