The U.S. Postal Service's plan to raise mailing rates could harm community newspapers already struggling from the pandemic advertising dip, according to the News Media Alliance, a trade group representing nearly 2,000 U.S. news organizations.
"Rates on periodicals would increase by more than 8 percent as of Aug. 29, according to agency filings. The price jump is part of a broad plan pushed by
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to overhaul mail operations," David Bauder and Anthony Izaguirre
report for
The Associated Press. "The impact of the periodical rate increase is expected to be felt most by small daily and weekly newspapers, as well as rural newspapers, which depend on the Postal Service since they have shifted from using independent contractors for deliveries."
The move could force publishers to reduce staff, sell papers entirely from news racks instead of providing home delivery, or could cause papers to shutter entirely, according to NMA senior vice president Paul Boyle. In comments to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission, the NMA said the plans harm the public interest but do little to improve the Postal Service's financial condition, The AP reports.
"It is one of several nicks and slashes that can damage the bottom line, especially if you are an independent publisher who is operating at break even or in the low single digits of profitability. And most are," Penelope Muse Abernathy, a
Northwestern University professor who has extensively studied the decline of the news industry, told The AP.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/3r9lRaE Critics say Postal Service plans threaten small papers -
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