Annual Review of Residential Distribution

Your publication's distribution must be reviewed annually to maintain brand standards and mailing compliance. This is a necessity driven by several factors - including: list expiration, USPS Route Adjustments, Income and Home Value Updates.

If these route or value changes require an adjustment to your coverage area, our team will send a residential overview email outlining the necessary or recommended updates. This annual review is also the ideal time to assess your current tier and take advantage of any potential perks or expanded opportunities that come with growth.

Residential Distribution Overview

Each year, the Distribution team will contact you via email with an updated Residential Distribution Overview. This email includes:

• A summary of your current routes
• Recommended routes to remove (if applicable)
• Recommended routes to add (if applicable)

Recommendations are made based on the most recent information from the USPS. 

New Publishers

1. Remember that your routes already include the highest value homes in your territory. You have likely already familiarized yourself with the areas in your community where you’ll be delivering, as it was needed for sales calls.
2. If a new neighborhood is developing or an existing neighborhood is undergoing revitalization, check to see when it will be best to add this area. Our data reflects average home values but may not immediately capture newly emerging areas. For brand-new subdivisions that meet our brand guidelines, USPS typically takes 6–12 months to establish a permanent route before mail delivery information becomes available.
3. If you notice a specific area that appears to be missing, reach out to your distribution team to schedule a meeting. There are several possible reasons for this, and we’re happy to review them with you.

Existing Publishers

1. If a new neighborhood is developing or an existing neighborhood is undergoing revitalization, check to see when it will be best to add this area. Our data reflects average home values but may not immediately capture newly emerging areas. For brand-new subdivisions that meet our brand guidelines, USPS typically takes 6–12 months to establish a permanent route before mail delivery information becomes available.
2. Compare your current routes with recommended adjustments to see how or why these may have been made. Do not hesitate to ask questions. Quite often, we discover that new builds have changed values in existing areas and driven those prices up.
3. Use the provided lists and lookup tools (such as Melissa Lookup or EDDM) to examine route specifics.

Important Information when Increasing Residential Distribution

• Expanding your reach and mailing deeper into your community is a powerful way to grow your impact! The more households you reach, the greater the benefits for your clients, increasing their exposure and potential customer base.
• Keep in mind that we already target the highest demographics in your community—million-dollar homes and as many high-end residences as your current tier allows for optimal publication success. As you add more residential routes, the lower end of your home value range will naturally decrease. For example:
  • Launch (6,500 residential) – Max: $5.5M | Lowest: $550K
  • Gold (7,800 residential) – Max: $5.5M | Lowest: $480K
  • Platinum (10,000 residential) – Max: $5.5M | Lowest: $380K
• This expansion means you’re covering more territory and reaching a broader audience, including younger homeowners with greater disposable income. The deeper your reach into the community, the more potential readers are exposed to your clients' advertising—making it a powerful selling point for your publication.

Requesting Distribution Changes Rounds (Outside of Annual Review)

Publishers may request adjustments before or after the annual Residential Distribution Overview. Requests will be reviewed by the Distribution team. Approval is subject to:

• Significant changes in territory demographics or home values.
• Tier achievements

If approved, the change round could incur fees and/or count as the annual route change for that year.

Consider Distribution Tiers and Policy Stipulations

The total distribution volume is determined by your publication’s distribution tier.

• Refer to the Distribution Policy for full details on each tier.
• Changes are locked for one year. If a second adjustment is requested within the same year, it will require approval and possible fees.