Quote, unquote: Reasons for optimism delivering newsstand value and service

"There is a lot to be optimistic about. Publishers have never put out better products. Go down to the warehouse and check out what is coming in. You'll see the best product you ever have: full color, more pages, perfect bound. It's a bit more expensive for the customer, with cover prices creeping up, but it delivers the value."

-- Old-time independent wholesaler John Cowley (quoted by Linda Ruth in her Publishers' Dojo column on Publishing Executive) says, among other interesting things: wholesalers need to be more hands-on, not contracting out; that value and service is what's important; that wholesalers and publishers have to scrap scanning returns which he says costs him $1.4 million a  year and requires 28 people and move instead to pay on scan, .