SNAIL JOURNALISM AND SNAIL MAIL NO LONGER A MONEY MAKER:

The Rocky Mountain News could no longer make money. It died on February 27 2009. The U. S. Postal Service is hoping to early retire 150,000 workers to save money. Why? The Internet. The economy, the unemployment, but mainly the Internet.
For nearly 150 years the Rocky Mountain News has cranked out hundreds of thousands of dead trees, pulled out 4 Pulitzer Prizes, and in the end lost money, and made 230 people gainfully unemployed.

For over 234 years, the Postal service has delivered mail through out the United States and the rest of the world, but in the end is not making money. This year alone, the Postal service has lost about 2.8 billion dollars.

Is snail Journalism dead? Is snail mail dead? Not entirely. Even Fedex which had been steadily making money for the last few years, reported a 75% drop in profits shares. Why is all this important? Why is the New York times, and now Seattle Post-Intelligencer going the way of the Internet? Again it is the Internet, the economy and unemployment, but I think mainly the Internet. Do you really have to have the snail mail delivery your cell phone bill? You can use a pay system on your bank website. How your cable bill, your credit card bills, or your mortgage.
How about love letters or the the way sons and daughters send money to their family? Through the mail? With Moneygram and Western Union online now?

With economy still tanking, and unemployment heading toward 9 % nationally, it is in the interest of major newspapers and the Federally run postal service to rely on the Internet to make money.

I thought I would just point that out.

And, as I thought about this, it occurred to me that one way people are making money online now is email marketing.
But be warned Spam need not apply here. Direct marketing Association reports that email based marketing will get you $43.52 dollars in return investment. And, although down from last year, companies are still making money from email marketing.


WHO IS MAKING THE MONEY?


According to Merkle database marketing agency, the the winners this year is Permission email. Merkle estimates that 55% promotional email is never even opened. This is a dilemma. But only for for those marketeers so desperate to make money. Clearly the winners are those companies that know who they are marketing to. It is knowing the customer, not the random crap that you get in email that makes the real money.

--Courteous Navigator