According to the Stamford Advocate:

Stamford-based Pitney Bowes Inc., the world's largest maker of postal meters, said U.S. mail volumes have remained "relatively steady" as individuals send fewer letters and packages.

Business and direct-marketing mail has grown, offsetting a 4 percent decline in first-class mail, Chief Executive Officer Murray Martin said at an investor conference in New York Wednesday. Electronic mail, including digital versions of bills and financial statements, hasn't hurt volume, he said.

"The segments we participate in have had steady to growing mail volumes," Martin said. "Electronic solutions are still a very, very low percentage."

Martin said he expects the U.S. mailing business to rebound next year from declines this year as equipment leases come up for renewal.

The company issued the following press release:

Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) told an audience of financial analysts and institutional investors today that its diversification strategies have brought significant benefits to both customers and investors. The company also provided fresh perspectives on growth plans for its major lines of business worldwide.

In his remarks, President and CEO Murray Martin noted that the company has changed in several significant ways in recent years, citing especially a geographic expansion that has nearly tripled international revenues since 2000, and an expansion of products and services beyond Pitney Bowes’s core mailing business that has enabled a much richer suite of offerings to customers.

“Our systematic expansion beyond our historic niche of mail evidencing enables us to meet more of the customer’s end-to-end needs,” Martin said. “This keeps the customer connected on topics that matter to them and helps Pitney Bowes build longer-term relationships.”

Martin noted that the addition of several new and rapidly-growing lines of business through acquisition has reduced mail and related hardware to just 54% of total annual revenues, down from 75% just seven years ago. “Our focus of delivering value has evolved from office equipment to mail, from mail to mailstream, and now from mailstream to connections with customers around what matters in the mailstream,” Martin said.

Chief Financial Officer Mike Monahan provided a detailed review of the company’s operating units and their long-term potential for revenue and profitability. Taken together, Monahan said, the company is positioned to deliver a total return to shareholders of 11-13% per year. This estimate assumes an organic revenue growth rate of 3-5%, improved operating profit margins, continued share repurchases, and a dividend yield of approximately 3%, which is close to Pitney Bowes’s long-term historical average.

In addition to the presentations from Martin and Monahan, the company provided demonstrations of many of the new technologies and services it offers. These included location intelligence software that assists marketers in a range of industries make more informed decisions; new systems that add customized marketing messages to bills and statements; and services that help companies take advantage of the rich trove of information provided by the U.S. Postal Service’s Intelligent Mail® barcode.

Pitney Bowes Assesses Progress and Opportunities

STAMFORD, Conn., December 20, 2007 – As the mailing industry marks the first anniversary of landmark postal reform legislation, Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) offered an upbeat assessment of the work that has been done to implement the law’s provisions, and of the implications the new law has for anyone who sends or receives mail.

President Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act on December 20, 2006, launching a new era for the United States Postal Service. Under the new law, increases in the price of postage for most mail cannot exceed the rate of inflation for at least the next nine years, and the Postal Service has unprecedented flexibility to manage the rates it charges beneath this “rate cap.” The law also envisions a major redesign of the postal network, calls for the creation of new service standards, and encourages the Postal Service to adopt new technologies to speed operations and lower costs.

“The postal reform bill was a major rethinking of virtually every aspect of postal operations,” said Pitney Bowes Executive Chairman Michael Critelli who, as chairman of the Mailing Industry CEO Council, was involved in helping to shape the final legislation. “We see tremendous long-term benefits both for the Postal Service and the mailing industry.”

Critelli praised the new Postal Regulatory Commission for swiftly establishing its mission and strategy, for engaging the industry in its deliberations, and for delivering, eight months ahead of schedule, new regulations that will determine how the Postal Service will set its rates in the future, beginning in 2008. Critelli also complimented the Postal Service for moving quickly to propose the new service standards called for under the law, also after extensive industry consultations.

“This kind of engagement with the industry is crucial to the long-term success of postal reform,” said Critelli. “The mailing industry employs some nine million Americans and accounts for $900 billion in economic activity. We all have a huge stake in making sure we capture the benefits of postal reform without needlessly disrupting this powerful economic engine.”

The next year should see equally important developments, Critelli noted. The Postal Service is expected to issue its first rates using the new rules, and the Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission face crucial reporting deadlines to Congress on several aspects of postal operations.

“We are very encouraged by the swift actions of the leadership at both the Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission,” Critelli said. “They are focused on fulfilling the many obligations placed on them by postal reform, and we look forward to continued dialogue and action to make the mailstream even more valuable and effective than ever before.”