A publishing institution, faithfully mailed at least twice a year to thousands of stores and libraries for about as long as the industry has existed, may be on its way out: The paper catalog.
HarperCollins announced Monday that it was planning to make their listings of upcoming releases available only online, calling the current system both economically and environmentally indefensible.
“I think we are overdue. We produce thousands and thousands of catalogs, many of which go right into the wastebaskets,” HarperCollins President Jane Friedman, who said the switch would likely begin by summer 2009, told The Associated Press. “It’s such a waste of paper and so inefficient.”
Of course it would help
if they had decent mailing lists that didn’t included people that had left your institution 20 years ago or who were dead!
Blanket mailshots using inaccurate mailing lists are even more environmentally indefensable.