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Presstream & pricing in proportion

Common questions and answers from Royal Mail about the Presstream service and information about Pricing in Proportion

Pricing in Proportion

With Pricing in Proportion (PiP), the price you pay to send mail will be dependent on size as well as weight. There will be three main pricing formats, Letter, Large Letter and Packet. While the postage prices for some items will change, many will stay the same. The overall revenue for Royal Mail will stay the same so the average cost of sending mail will remain unchanged

Why is Royal Mail doing this?
Royal Mail believes that pricing in proportion would more accurately reflect its costs and the proposals are designed to facilitate greater machinability of mail.

Scale of the impact on the magazine industry

• Magazines as a sector overall would undoubtedly lose out under the size-based pricing proposals.
• Specifically, the size-based pricing proposals would effectively wipe out weekly A3 tabloid magazines as a genre.
• PPA has been notified of increases of up to 125 per cent, with increases of 50 per cent not uncommon.
• In monetary terms, increases could be up to £1.2m annually for a single title.
• Publishers of A4 publications could face unexpected, significant postal price increases under the new proposals. Any A4 titles straying marginally over the 10mm and 250g thresholds under the new structure could be looking at increases of over 250 per cent.

The consequences for publishers

• Few titles could sustain this level of increase to their postal costs which can account for up to 60 per cent of total costs. As a result, publishers would have three options:
  1. To seek alternative means of distribution.
  2. To change to a 'one size fits all A4' format.
  3. To close down.
• Imposing a 'one size fits all' approach would destroy the brand values of many flagship titles.
• Folding to A4 is not an option for most publications due to their thickness.

Presstream

Presstream is a Royal Mail service designed for publishers which gives access to discounted postage prices. The customer must report by postcode their subscription or circulation database prior to each mailing and meet certain other minimum requirements.

Presstream relies on a partnership between you and Royal Mail. Assisting Royal Mail with some of the sorting and presentation of your mail (that would otherwise be undertaken by Royal Mail alone) means less handling en-route. Because you've helped reduce their workload, Royal Mail can offer you some significant savings on your mailing costs.

Before you can use the presstream service Royal Mail will ask you to provide a recent copy of your publication so that they can ensure that it is a newsletter, journal or periodical (including customer magazines but excluding catalogues). Your periodical will need to meet the following requirements:

• The front of each periodical must bear its title and date, month or season of publication.
• It must be published and posted on a regular basis, at least four times a year for Presstream 1 and no less than twice a year for Presstream 2.
• Each of your postings must contain at least 1,000 packets or 4,000 letters, each of which must carry a single inland periodical.
• At least 90 per cent of your periodicals must be addressed to include a full and accurate postcode as defined by the Postcode Address File (PAF).

As well as Royal Mail's standard Presstream discounts, they offer a further discount known as Profile Pricing. This is a percentage discount which is based on the following three factors:

1. A minimum of 3,000 direct items being delivered into a defined group of city centre areas.
2. The item weight.
3. How many copies are being delivered to single delivery points.

For mailings of 250,000 items or more, Royal Mail operates a flat rate profile price structure. The flat rate profile price incorporates all Presstream discounts.

Frequently asked questions

• Can I post a periodical that weighs less than 60g?
  Yes but you will be required to pay the same as a 60g item.
• Can I post less than 1,000 packets using Presstream
  Yes but you will be charged for 1,000 packets.
• Can a mailing house hold a Presstream contract?
  No. Only the publisher / Owner of the periodical or an organisation who has contracted with the publisher / owner to publish the periodical on their behalf, can hold a presstream contract.
• What are the weight restrictions on supplements being posted with the main periodical?
  Until recently it used to be that the supplement could not weigh heavier than the main periodical, however, this has now been changed and there is no maximum weight limit for supplements.
• How many loose inserts can I place within the main periodical?
  There are no restrictions on the number of loose inserts, however, the total weight of all inserts must not exceed the weight of the main periodical itself.
• Can product cards be sent via Presstream?
  Yes, product cards can but only via Presstream 2. They also have to be seen by the Product Team for clarification that they meet the criteria as stated in the Presstream Schedule.
• Are presstream prices due to increase?
  There is no planned increase on Presstream prices for this calendar year.
• Is the profile price discount in addition to standard Presstream directs & residues discount?
  Yes. If the customer is entitled to say 20 per cent discount they still obtain the sortation discount they are entitled to.
• Is the profile price flat rate price per item in addition to standard Presstream discounts?
  No. The flat rate price has already taken into account standard Presstream discounts. Therefore no further discounts can be obtained.
• What would the profile price discount be (approximately) on a mailing of say, 25k items?
  Profile price discounts are calculated on an individual basis looking at the number of copies being delivered into city centre areas and therefore it is not possible to estimate discounts.
• What format do the line listings need to be submitted in?
  Line lists are only accepted in electronic 'comma delimited' or 'comma separated variable length (CSV)' formats.
• Exactly what information do you require on the line listings?
  The minimum information required is the standard selection code and the number of items going into that selection.