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USPS: Flats Address Placement to Change
Effective March 29, 2009, the USPS will require new delivery address placement standards for Periodicals, Standard Mail, Bound Printed Matter (BPM), Library Mail, and Media Mail flat-size mailpieces prepared and mailed at automation, presorted, and carrier route prices.

Customers will be required to place the delivery address in the “upper portion” of these flats. The upper portion is defined as the top half of a mailpiece, when the piece is oriented vertically with the spine on the right.

Given this requirement, publishers will have two options for placement of address information:

  1. Front Cover. Looking at a magazine's front cover while it's held right-side up, the address label would appear in the bottom half with the printed address information appearing upside down (remember that the “upper portion” of a piece is determined when holding the piece with the spine on the right).

  2. Back Cover. Looking at a magazine's back cover while it's held right-side up, the address label would appear in the top half, with the printed address information appearing right-side up.
The USPS is requiring this placement because of the way mail will be sorted in the new Flats Sequencing System (FSS). The objective of FSS is to process flats in delivery sequence at high speeds and to output the pieces in vertical bundles that are ready for carrier delivery. The new delivery address placement criteria will make it easier for mail carriers to read addresses on the vertically oriented mail pieces.
 
Click here for more information about delivery address placement for FSS processing.