What a dark day for the industry this is. The national postal strike will of course be hugely disruptive for all kinds of businesses and for consumers up and down the country, but while it may be great news for couriers it is particularly bad news for print.

This industry is already being severely impacted by the shift to digital media, and industrial action that will effectively drive customers into the arms of alternative media channels is the worst possible news at the worst possible time.

Tomorrow's edition of PrintWeek, for example, will be among the millions of items sitting in a warehouse somewhere instead of arriving on people's desks. So it will be available online using Ceros' interactive publication platform, and a host of other titles from Haymarket and many other publishers titles are also taking this type of route. Speaking to Ceros managing director Dominic Duffy earlier, he confirmed that the firm is handling a far greater number of titles than usual, specifically because of the strike.

The industrial action is a particular nightmare for publishers of weekly titles that go out to subscribers via the mail. I see that Dennis' highly-successful digest The Week is also on the front foot in this respect, last week's edition carried a house advert explaining that subscribers would be able to log on to an online version of the magazine in the event of industrial action.

Publishers of smaller titles that are struggling with falling ad revenues will be looking long and hard at the cost of their supply chains, and this disruption could provide a final push in the direction of abandoning print altogether. And it is just as damaging for the direct mail industry, as PrintWeek's sister title Marketing Direct reports today that the strike could cost the sector £10m in disrupted campaigns.

It's good to see some companies making the best of a bad situation - personalised greetings card specialist Moonpig, for example, has decided to use it as an opportunity to up-sell by sending out a promotional email encouraging customers to combine card orders with flowers and other gifts that will be delivered by courier, or to opt for Special Delivery. Whether cash-strapped consumers will be willing or able to increase their spend to such an extent remains to be seen.

No, this stupid, wrong-headed, ambiguous strike is only good news for the late payment bandits who will probably be able to string out their "cheque is in the post" hogwash until well after Christmas.