The Postal Journal - New Look and features

The Postal Journal has just completed its upgrade of its web design.   Check out the new site and in particular the lead story on Transactional Printing in North America.   

The objective of the Journal is to explore the evolution of the North American postal market as part of the 21st century economic and communication infrastructure and facilitate an exchange of perspectives by individuals without regard to past or present affiliations, and to do so without any preconceived notions of what should be the end result.  The Journal will provide the postal industry with information needed to deal with rapid change as government policy initiatives, and market forces challenge established relationships between service providers and their employees and customers.

While the Postal Service is the largest carrier in the postal market in North America, significant policy, economic and supply chain issues exist that affect other market participants.  For example, check out the recent updates on contractor legislation compiled by the Messenger Courier Association of America.  

The Postal Journal has begun the process of searching online databases for previously unpublished faculty and student research on the industry.   Check out the recent master's thesis on the direct mail supply chain of Life Time Fitness.   After reading it, ask yourself these questions.  Can mail survive if it takes so long to go from concept delivery?  What can each participant in the supply chain, from Life Time Fitness to the Postal Service do to shorten the supply chain for them and companies with similar advertising needs?  Could simplifying the supply chain and scheduling everything including a precise delivery commitment by the Postal service reduce costs? 

Faculty members at Stanford University and University of Pennsylvania have agreed to serve as advisers to the Postal Journal and will help develop guidelines for publication.  Faculty members at other universities are starting to develop projects for upper-level undergraduate and graduate level public policy and economics classes that could lead to published papers.   Discussions have begun with faculty members in other fields to cover the marketing, management, human capital management, supply chain, document management, and legal disciplines that can conduct relevant research on the postal market.  Carriers and stakeholders with ideas for student and/or faculty research should contact the journal at editor@postaljournal.com for details on how to submit research topics and provide research grants to encourage scholarship to advance understanding of significant management, technological, policy, or supply chain issues. 

The Postal Journal is soliciting for publication student, faculty, and practitioner research.  The Journal will accept works in presentation and more formal written forms.  Given the breadth of the issues facing the industry, no subject is off topic,  Currently the Postal Journal seeks items focused on the following topics:

• Public policy and industry economics – the regulatory and legislative actions that determine postal industry policy; includes both the legal and economic research that influences government policy
• The future of the document, digital, print, and mobile – market research and innovative ideas on how documents are sent now and into the future
• Parcel delivery and fulfillment – news and market research on parcel delivery and competition among market participants
• Human capital management – labor relations, labor contract law, compensation and benefit and the management of a people intensive business
• Sustainability – the environmental impact of the industry
• Technology – information systems and other technologies affecting the industry and the integration of print, digital, and mobile communications modes.
• Retail Access – changes driving how customers that buy small quantities are served and the services offered in retail facilities
• Supply Chain Management – the physical distribution, information system, production methods used to move documents from concept to delivery and parcels from order to delivery

Specific format requirements can be found on the Postal Journal's Submission Guidelines page.


The Postal Journal has already compiled the most comprehensive list of links to industry news on the web.   As new news sources, headline sources and relevant blogs are identified, they will be added to this page.   If you have a blog, on-line publication, or news accumulator that you would like to see posted on this list contact the Postal Journal at editor@postaljournal.com