Marketing Solutions Provider Introduces Flat-Rate Postage Program to Combat Rising Fees and Help Stabilize Marketing Budgets 
 
Baltimore (May, 2008) – Vertis Communications, the premier provider of print advertising and direct marketing solutions to leading retail and consumer services companies, today launched “Vertis Optimal Postage,” a predictable and cost-effective mailing solution that will provide marketers a guaranteed flat-rate postage and processing fee. This new service addresses rising postage rates across standard-class, letter-size mail, including handling and freight surcharges. The vision of Vertis Optimal Postage is to provide industry-leading, guaranteed-rate postal processing with the highest delivery predictability to Vertis customers.

 
“Roughly 60 percent of our customers’ direct marketing budgets is spent on postage and freight costs. The now-yearly increases in postage rates have made shipping budgets too difficult to estimate and control.  We set out to fix that problem.” said Ted LeBow, vice president of operations for Vertis Communications. “Vertis Optimal Postage demonstrates our dedication to saving our customers time and money by taking the guesswork out of their mail moving process with our own, industry-proven expertise.”
 
The Vertis Optimal Postage solution applies a cost/benefit analysis to a historical compilation of each customer’s mail plan, unfolding the solution in three stages. The first involves data processing, including data hygiene and postal pre-sort to organize and combine addresses, adhering to postal regulations and maximizing postal savings. Secondly, Vertis will utilize either physical sortation – a standard sorting of mail directly from the data file into a mail tray – or co-mingling, a mechanical process that combines multiple finished mail pieces from many sources in order to obtain a greater saturation of zip codes. Finally, Vertis performs a logistical planning process consisting of destination entry or moving the mail to bulk-mail center (BMC) or sectional center facility (SCF) entry points, which may include co-palletization - combining trays to like destinations.
 
While there are three distinct ways for Vertis’ customers to save postage, the basic principal is the same: the more work Vertis completes ahead of time for the United States Postal Service, the greater the savings passed on to customers. Recent cost/benefit analyses of Vertis’ Optimal Postage solution have resulted in an average of 7.1 percent postage rate reduction, per piece.
 
Vertis’ postal experts are liaisons with the USPS and are also members of the Postal Regulatory Board, ensuring Vertis is on the forefront of mail preparation techniques and technology in the industry.
 
For more information on the Vertis Optimal Postage solution or for media inquiries, contact Jesse Lovejoy or Kelly Hamor at (619) 234-0345, lovejoy@formulapr.com or hamor@formulapr.com.
 
 
About Vertis Communications
Vertis Communications is a premier provider of print advertising, direct marketing solutions, and related value added services to America’s leading retail and consumer services companies. Vertis delivers marketing programs that create strategic value for clients by using creative services, color management technologies, proprietary research, customer targeting expertise, premedia and media services, combined with its world-class printing expertise. Headquartered in Baltimore with over 100 locations in the U.S., Vertis Communications has been recognized as one of Fortune magazine's "Most Admired Companies" in advertising and marketing. For more information, visit www.vertisinc.com.