NOSTALGIA: Rise of selfie leads to demise of oldest publisher of postcards
Britain's oldest postcard publisher is closing after almost 140 years because of the rise of the selfie.
J Salmon, which has been a family-run business since it was founded, has announced that it proposes to publish its last traditional postcards – and calendars – in December.
It blames shrinking markets and the huge increase in the popularity of social media for a dramatic decline in traditional holiday postcard sales.
Thanks to the arrival of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp sales have fallen from 20 million 25 years ago to about five million today – with increased competition from overseas printers and publishers.
Reader Simon Hart is mourning the loss of the firm as he was an avid collector.
He says: ‘I have happy memories of buying postcards and putting them in scrapbooks as a child.
‘It is sad to realise that no J Salmon cards will be sold showing HMS Victory in her returned glory after the current restoration.’
And to mark the end of J Salmon he sent me two old cards from his collection showing Nelson’s flagship in all her pomp.