“cost recovery?” What about the logistics costs first of all printing, then warehousing and distribution to various points of sale? Then there is the question of stock holding costs, reprints. Then there is the cost involved in version control and updates, including pulping old stock, processing returns from sales outlets, distribution of new stock and the whole process of changeover to a new version including transition arrangements. Then there is the cost of working capital involved.
Has all that been taken into account in “cost recovery?” How slow and snail like the process? How is the information going to reach the maximum number of pilots at minimum cost to everyone? It isn’t.
You can publish and distribute online for a fraction of the cost of using dead trees - and that’s another thing, what about the environmental costs of paper usage as well as the extra weight and fuel burn?
Just ask for an email for update notification, maybe put an automatic watermark on the .pdf as it’s downloaded to prevent unauthorised distribution if you like, then you have fast easy efficient and effective distribution of the latest safety information to the pilot community that needs it. Manufacturers like Dynon, Rotax and goodness knows who else puts this sort of information on the web for free and updates it regularly with full version controls as well - this isn’t rocket science.
And another thing. Why in this century am I not able to reserve an aircraft registration Set of letters on the web in seconds?