Clock is Ticking on Switch to IMb

By Brad Hill

President

“That is the sound of inevitability” – a popular line from the 1999 flick The Matrix. Those words come to mind when I consider the impending death of the decades-old POSTNET barcode as the US Postal Service shifts to the new Intelligent Mail barcode for addressing. Assumingly, as was the original monotone delivery, the USPS script offers mailers a simple choice: Print the Intelligent Mail barcode or face the consequence of losing automation rates.

The ultimatum applies to all newspapers mailing under Periodical or Standard Mail permits and printing barcodes on address labels, regardless of whether or not the newspapers ever actually pass a barcode scanner.

USPS uses the new barcode, which stores nearly three times more information, as part of a system designed primarily to measure and, theoretically, improve network efficiency.

The cost to change? Perhaps a new label printer if yours isn’t capable of printing the new barcode, and a few minutes to sign up and acquire a Mailer ID (MID) on the USPS gateway (gateway.usps.com). And, of course, it requires compatible software like Interlink Circulation.

The cost of not changing? Not complying means dropping the barcode from your address area entirely. This can affect postage from less than $200 to several thousand dollars per year, depending on the number of papers being mailed and how much of the mailing is being sent at 5-digit or costlier rates. Not barcoding also can increase the risk of distant delivery problems, and with it the chance that observant subscribers might blame the mailer for those problems instead of the USPS.

It’s a decision each publisher must make for themselves, weighing the cost of losing automation rates carefully. If you’re an Interlink customer and would like assistance with the change, contact our support team, and we’ll gladly help.

Act fast: Postal requirements will inevitably change on January 28, 2013, the first day the IMb becomes mandatory to claim automation rates.