Viagra to the Rescue? Postal Regulations Are Taking the Life Out of Tabloid Magazines

It may be time to bid farewell to the tabloid-sized American magazine.

A variety of forces have been conspiring for several decades to put oversized magazines onto the endangered-species list. Now the U.S. Postal Service appears ready to put the tabloid magazine (and catalog) out of existence.

Postal regulations scheduled to take effect in June will impose significant penalties on magazines, catalogs, newspapers and other “flat mail” that fail a deflection test – commonly called a droop test. The rules are especially tough on skinny publications and tabloids, according to printers who have conducted extensive tests.

“PostCom’s service provider members inform us that mailers of tabloids are likely to redesign their pieces as quarter-folds to meet the deflection standards,” the Association for Postal Commerce (Postcom) wrote recently to the USPS. Some are considering going to a quarterfold format – folding the tabloid in half and securing it with tabs – which could mean more capital investment for printers and more problems for the Postal Service, PostCom says. Others are considering more radical redesigns.

"Unless we can figure out how to put Viagra into the paper to keep it from drooping, the tabloid size is dead," one magazine publishing executive told Dead Tree Edition.

The video posted here, created by catalog printer Arandell Corporation, demonstrates how to conduct the droop test, though other printers have recommended somewhat different methodology. PostCom’s letter requests that the Postal Service “publish explicit and well-documented instructions on how to perform the deflection test, including a demonstrative video.”

Television helped kill off the iconic photo-news tabloids Life and Look four decades ago. Subsequently, developments in press technology, newsstand display practices, and the need to reduce paper costs have caused most major U.S. consumer magazines and catalogs to adopt the “short cutoff” format, which is 10.5” tall. A notable exception is the 12-inch-tall ESPN The Magazine.

For the most part, the tabloid format – generally, at least 11.5” tall and usually more like 13” – in the U.S. is the province of such trade publications as Nation’s Restaurant News (10.75” x 13.25”) and WWD (formerly Women’s Wear Daily, 10 3/16” x 12 ¾”). Catalogs using the tabloid format also tend to be specialty titles that print and mail fewer than 100,000 copies at a time.

The rapid expansion of co-mailing, which typically reduces postage by 10% to 25% for both magazines and catalogs, the past couple of years pressured the tabloid format because most printers offered little if any ability to consolidate the mailing of tabloids. The exception is Publishers Press, which is focused mostly on producing small-circulation b-to-b and enthusiast magazines rather than the big mass-market titles.

For both Periodicals (magazine and newspaper) and Standard (catalog) classes, failing the droop test will increase postage by 10% to 30%, or even more, in June when the USPS starts imposing penalties.

Results of tests performed by various printers show that the new standards are not kind to tabloids. One found that an 80-page book 9.875”x 13.875” book with a four-page cover failed the test but that cutting a few inches off the height did wonders: A 48-pager of the same width that was only 10.5” tall passed the test, even though it had no cover and used slightly lighter paper.

Tests have been even worse for oblong formats, those with a width greater than their height. That means the new regulations will pretty well kill an idea that occasionally surfaces – reformatting print publications to a horizontal format so that their digital twins are easier to read on a computer screen.

Oversized magazines may still be inserted into newspapers, sold on newsstands, handed out at trade shows, and distributed via alternate delivery. But unless the Postal Service changes the regulations and/or the proposed penalties, the sight of a mailbox containing an oversized magazine or catalog could become extremely rare.

For further reference:

• USPS Revisions to Deflection (Droop) Standards for Flats: Worldcolor explains how much droop is allowed and how to test for droop.
• Eligibility for Commercial Flats Failing Deflection: The recent Federal Register notice seeking comment on the Postal Service's proposed penalties for failing the droop test.
• The USPS Announces Applicable Prices for Pieces That Fail New Deflection Standards: Worldcolor explains the proposed penalties.