-By Todd Wasserman

Plastic pushers are producing less paper, per a new report.

Mintel Comperemedia, Chicago, reports that “acquisition mail” volume for credit cards fell about 8% from the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter and the volume has been steadily falling since the third quarter of 2007, when the researcher pegged the total number at 1.86 billion pieces. The latest figures are down 17% from that high. The researcher’s findings are based on extrapolating the results of a small sample.

Lisa Hronek, a senior analyst with Mintel Comperemedia, blamed the credit crunch, which has forced credit card firms to pull back on marketing directed at obtaining new customers. “It makes sense that they’re pulling back and only hitting the best customers,” she said.

David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, a credit card industry newsletter, also said that credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard were in a cherry-picking mode. “They’re focusing more on targeted marketing than mass marketing,” he said.

Nevertheless, according to Nielsen Media Research, the spending for the credit card category on measured media like TV and print jumped 22% for the first five months of this year versus the previous period in 2007.

The Direct Marketing Assn., New York, reported that the financial services industry spent $13.4 billion on direct marketing in 2007 and projects that the category’s spending on direct mail advertising will grow at a rate of 3.4% per year from 2007 through 2012.