Print Isn't Getting Cheaper. Here's Why That Matters for Central Oregon
I spent over $100,000 on print advertising in 2025. Postage rates are up again in 2026, paper costs keep climbing, and the redemption numbers on physical mailers have never been great.
Key takeaways
- USPS Marketing Mail rates have increased 7.8% in 2025 and another 4.8% in July 2026, making every direct mail campaign more expensive before a single piece is printed.
- Paper, ink, and transportation costs are all rising together, and none of those pressures are expected to ease.
- 169 million Americans used digital coupons in 2025, and 93.5% of them did it on their phone — the behavior has already shifted.
- A business paying for a print coupon run is covering 100% of the cost whether the coupon gets redeemed or thrown away; digital flips that equation.
- Local Coupons is not an ad platform — it puts offers in front of people who are already looking to spend, not people being interrupted.
- For Bend shoppers and business owners, an app-based approach is not the future of local deals, it is already the present.
The Real Cost of Getting a Deal in Someone's Hands
I spent over $100,000 on print advertising in 2025. Mailers, coupon booklets, inserts, the works. I know exactly what that feels like from both sides of the table, as a business owner writing the check, and as someone who grew up watching my mom clip coupons at the kitchen table because the money had to stretch.
What I can tell you is this: the cost of reaching someone through print has never been higher, and it is not going to come down.
USPS raised Marketing Mail rates 7.8% in July 2025. In July 2026, they are going up another 4.8%. The Forever stamp just jumped from $0.78 to $0.82. That might sound small, but when you are mailing tens of thousands of pieces, it adds up fast. And postage is only one line on the invoice.
Paper prices have been climbing for years, driven by energy costs, freight increases, and supply chain issues that nobody in the print industry has figured out how to solve. The ink costs more. The trucks that haul it cost more. The warehouses that store it cost more. Every link in that chain has gotten more expensive, and every increase gets passed on to the business paying for the final product.
For a local shop in Bend, a coupon mailer or a spot in a booklet is not a small decision. It is a real budget item, with no guarantee anyone opens it before it hits the recycling bin.
What Shoppers Are Doing
In 2025, 169 million Americans redeemed digital coupons. Digital coupon issuance grew 68.8% year over year. And 93.5% of people who use digital coupons do it on their phone.
That is not a trend. That is where the behavior already is. People are not waiting for a mailer to land on their porch to decide where they want to eat or what shop to try. They are pulling out their phone while they are already out, already deciding, already spending. A paper booklet that arrives on a Tuesday and sits on a counter until Saturday cannot compete with an offer that shows up at the right moment.
This matters for Bend shoppers because the savings are real either way. A 20% discount is a 20% discount whether it comes on glossy paper or a screen. The difference is whether you actually see it when you need it. Most people never do with print.
What Business Owners Are Paying For
When a local business buys a spot in a coupon magazine or mails out a flyer, they are paying for production, postage, and distribution, before a single customer walks through the door. If the redemption rate on direct mail coupons is around 5%, that means 95 out of every 100 pieces gets ignored. The business still paid for all 100.
I ran those numbers myself for years. I tested print across hundreds of campaigns. Some of it worked. A lot of it did not, and I could never tell which was which until the money was already gone. That is the honest truth about print advertising: the feedback loop is slow, the costs are fixed, and you are betting on whether someone chooses not to throw it away.
Local Coupons is built differently. It is not advertising. Businesses are not paying to interrupt someone who did not ask for it. They are putting a real offer in front of someone who opened an app specifically to find something worth spending on. The intent is already there.
Why This Is Only Going to Get Harder for Print
Transportation costs are tied to fuel, and fuel costs are not getting more predictable. Paper mills are dealing with tighter timber supply. USPS has posted multi-billion dollar losses and has already signaled continued rate increases through 2027. The economics of getting a physical piece of paper into someone's hands are working against every business still relying on it.
The coupon booklets and magazine mailers that have been around for decades are not going away tomorrow. But the cost of producing them keeps rising, the readership keeps shrinking, and the businesses paying for it are getting less in return every year. That math does not improve.
An app does not have a postage bill. It does not have a print run minimum. It does not get thrown out before it is opened. For a local business in Bend trying to reach people who actually want to save money, and for a shopper trying to find a real deal at a place they already like, it is the version of this that actually works in 2026.
That is what Local Coupons is. And that is why we are building it now, before the print bills get any higher.
Shoppers: Get notified when we launch in Bend
Business owners: Learn how to list your business
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