Abstract: A method for private distribution of printed advertising materials includes the steps of: (a) receiving at a publishing house an order from a customer for direct distribution advertising materials intended for distribution to recipients, (b) creating the advertising materials at the publishing house, (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) for a plurality of customers, (d) transporting the advertising materials created pursuant to (a)-(c) to one of a number of distribution centers associated with predetermined delivery regions, (e) bundling the sorted advertising materials so that advertising materials created for different customers for delivery to a single recipient address are grouped together, (f) dividing the packaged advertising materials up into delivery groups based on a predetermined delivery scheme, (g) providing a delivery group to each of a number of delivery couriers; and (i) hand delivering by the delivery couriers the sorted, packaged advertising materials to the recipients according to the delivery sc

Abstract: A sorting system using multiple sorters operating as part of a single, multi-sorting machine unified system. The system according to the invention includes a plurality of input sections capable of operating in parallel, each including a feeder that takes in mail pieces one at a time and a scanner that scans each mail piece for destination indicia, a plurality of stackers each comprising at least one row of pockets, a control system that determines a destination pocket in the stacker for each mail piece based on a predetermined sort scheme and the destination indicia, and a routing system effective to route mail in accordance with the sort scheme from any input section to any pocket of a stacker.