What Are Comailing and Co-palletization?

Comailing and co-palletization combine multiple magazines into a single mailing.  Through these processes, multiple smaller-circulation magazines are combined and prepared in a manner that resembles the preparation of a larger publication, thus allowing the publications to qualify for substantial worksharing discounts for presorting, palletizing, and dropshipping.  In addition to postage savings, frequently-cited benefits of comailing and co-palletization include:

• Magazines arriving in better physical condition;
• More predictable and often better service; and
• Increased tracking ability.

Comailing or Co-palletization?

Comailing combines copies of multiple publications into the same bundles and onto the same pallets.  Comailing can be performed by selectively binding multiple publications at the same time on a bindery line (referred to as “co-binding” or “inline comailing”) or through a separate “offline” process after the magazines are bound.  Co-palletization is an offline process that combines bundles of multiple different publications onto the same pallet.  The best option for a particular publication depends on a number of factors.  For example:

• Offline comailing generally yields the largest postage savings because this process combines as many as fifty publications into the same bundles, thus allowing publishers to qualify for substantial additional presort discounts (e.g., the Carrier Route discount).
• Inline comailing is often viewed as the best option for time-sensitive publications because it saves time by avoiding the need for an offline process after the publication is bound.
• Co-palletization is the least restrictive process.  For example, this process allows more variation in trim sizes than comailing and imposes no restrictions on addressing options.