At the end of August, the next phase of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s plan to overhaul (read: destroy) the U.S. Postal Service will take effect.
In this phase, which was revealed in DeJoy’s 10-year plan for the USPS, first class stamps will increase from 55 cents to 58 cents; first class mail traveling to the farthest reaches of the postal service’s network will see delivery go from one to three days to one to five days (in theory, as we’ve already seen DeJoy’s “improvements” delay mail significantly); “underused” (read: rural) post offices will be “consolidated” (read: closed); and packages will be prioritized over letters.
There’s another change DeJoy is making — one that won’t get much public attention. The USPS will also increase the rates to deliver periodicals, like newspapers, about 8% (or, on average, from 10.6 cents to 11.4 cents). On the surface, such a small hike doesn’t seem like much, but for a small paper relying on mail delivery to reach customers, that increase will cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month.
To be clear, The Dominion Post will not be affected by this change. We are fortunate to have a wonderful staff of delivery drivers to bring our newspaper to our readers.
However, hundreds of small papers — generally local weeklies — will be impacted. Some of those, barely hanging on at the moment if they survived the pandemic at all, will not be able to bear the increased price of mail delivery and will go under or limit their print runs even more.
Don Smith, executive director of the West Virginia Press Association, said for newspapers, especially the weekly newspapers that use the postal service for much of their delivery, the proposed rate increase adds insult to injury.
“The postal service wants to charge more for the poor delivery service provided for periodicals. Our newspapers have experienced tremendous delays in mail delivery, especially to out-of-state and out-of-county customers. Our circulation staff members must try to explain why newspapers mailed the day they were printed arrived days or weeks later. Unfortunately, the postal service administration has set priorities that leave newspapers and other periodicals either sitting in postal centers or being trucked around the region until they are distributed to the local mail route. It’s tough to keep customers when the delivery of the news is weeks late.
“There are issues that need to be addressed, but the postal service should not consider raising the price unless it has fixed the service. Now is not the time for an 8.8% rate increase.”
According to the Associated Press, 2,100 newspapers have closed their doors in the last 15 years, most of them local papers. DeJoy’s so-called improvements could close even more, widening America’s already vast news deserts (i.e. areas without local news).
We believe everyone should have the opportunity to access local news — to know what is happening in their community, in their local government and more — and local papers are essential to gathering and distributing information. Even though The Dominion Post won’t be impacted come August, we stand in solidarity with all of America’s hometown newspapers and demand the U.S. Postal Service drop the proposed periodicals rate hike from its 10-year plan.
