Live from New Orleans: Publisher Faces the Cost of Doing Business – With The USPS
Louisiana enthusiasts doubtless understood if their fall issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas came a little late last year: The quarterly publication’s fall issue should have rolled off the presses and into the mail on Sept. 30, but in the wake of Hurricane Katrina it wasn’t finished and in the mail until Nov. 15.
Those in the New Orleans area, however, received their issues considerably later then that. In addition, if they looked carefully at the wrapper they would have seen that it cost the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), which publishes the magazine, a lot more to get it into their hands.
The cover of the fall 2005 issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas featured mud-covered Mardi Gras masks found in Arabi, LA after Hurricane Katrina hit.
That’s because 1,500 copies were not allowed to go into the mail-processing stream at the Houston distribution center where they were initially dropped off. These magazine had been bound for ZIP codes within areas of New Orleans that are receiving First Class mail only: To reduce the volume of mail going into the affected area, Standard Mail and Periodicals are refused at the point of entry.
That did not sit well with Michael Sartisky, the LEH’s president and CEO. “The Post Office is nearly as big a disaster as FEMA or the Army Corps of Engineers,” he said. “They should be counted as an unholy trinity.”
Sartisky’s anger masked a certain level of fear. His organization, which is an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, counts on the quarterly publication to keep its mission as the statewide cultural agency of Louisiana in front of donors. And even before Katrina hit, the $1.7 million it was scheduled to receive from state and federal organizations had been slashed by $200,000. After Katrina, the LEH lost an additional $300,000.
While the magazine itself is not mailed with fundraising solicitations, it is the primary tool the organization, which funds documentary films, graduate seminars, museum exhibits and historical conferences that center on the Pelican State, as well as broader-based national literacy and social studies programs. And one of its two annual fundraising efforts was scheduled to follow the issue.
The LEH collected the 1,500 copies the Houston mail drop had refused, purchased 1,500 oversized envelopes, and sent each magazine out via first class mail. “It cost us literally ten times the price,” Sartisky said. Typically, the non-profit pays around 29 cents for every 96-page issue it sends out. The repackaged magazines cost the organization more than $3 each to mail.
Michael Sartisky, president and CEO of the Louisiana Endowment of the Humanities
Mailing the magazines first class proved to be a wise investment, as did the subsequent fundraising effort, which went – via first class as well – to 2,200 donors who had given at least $35 dollars, the minimum level for LEH membership (the magazine is available to non-members for $16 for four issues).
Despite significant disruptions in first-class mail delivery within New Orleans – “We are getting mail routinely two and three weeks late,” said Sartisky – the effort has pulled in $83,000, well above the $35,000 such solicitations normally generate. And that’s without knowing how many donations simply haven’t – and may never – be delivered.
In fact, the response has been so good that the LEH has doubled its fundraising goal for 2006 to $230,000, up from the $115,000 it had originally forecast. Its spring mailing is scheduled to go out in March.
“Between damage to the economy and competing needs, we thought the competition would be fierce, but let’s give some credit to the human heart,” Sartisky said. “Part of what makes us different is that three days after Katrina hit we were doing family literacy programs in the evacuee centers.”
This article is part of a weeklong series Direct Newsline is featuring on direct marketing and the economic recovery of New Orleans.
