Do you send cards any more?

From AP:

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Say it’s your birthday or you’ve just had a baby, maybe got engaged or bought your first house. If you’re like many Americans, your friends are texting their congratulations, sending you an e-card or clicking “Like” on your Facebook wall.

But how many will send a paper greeting card?

“I’m really, really bad at it,” said Melissa Uhl. The 25-year-old nanny from Kansas City, Mo., hears from friends largely through Facebook. “Maybe,” she said, “an e-card from my mom.”

Once a staple of birthdays and holidays, paper greeting cards are fewer and farther between – now seen as something special, instead of something that’s required. The cultural shift is a worrisome challenge for the nation’s top card maker, Hallmark Cards Inc., which last week announced it will close a Kansas plant that made one-third of its greeting cards. In consolidating its Kansas operations, Kansas City-based Hallmark plans to shed 300 jobs.

Pete Burney, Hallmark’s senior vice president who overseas production, says “competition in our industry is indeed formidable” and that “consumers do have more ways to connect digitally and online and through social media.”