Dateline: May 11, 2006

Postal service promises higher rates for papers

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Postal rates in May 2007 could rise nearly 25 percent for newspapers delivered to in-county subscribers if the United States Postal Service has its way, and annual increases are in store for the foreseeable future.

The USPS announced last Wednesday that it intended a larger rate hike for local newspapers than for virtually any other mail class. The proposed increase is the highest in more than a decade.

The announcement came with the filing of proposed rate increases for all mail, including a 42-cent first-class stamp. Rates would be expected to go into effect around May 2007.

Stephen M. Kearney, Postal Service vice-president of pricing and classification, said the increases were planned to cover rising postal costs, including health care for retirees and higher fuel costs. He also said USPS wanted rates that send appropriate signals to mailers to change their mail to shapes and containers that were more efficient for USPS to handle.

“The National Newspaper Association vigorously opposes this increase,” Jerry L. Reppert, NNA president and publisher of the Anna (IL) Gazette-Democrat, said. “USPS seems to be saying our mail is no longer desirable because newspapers are shaped like newspapers and have to be transported in containers that the Postal Service no longer wants to use.

“Short of throwing out our printing presses and putting newspapers on tidy little sheets of typing paper,  we are limited in what responses we can make to these price signals.”

But Clarendon Enterprise publisher Roger Estlack said he knows exactly what course newspapers and their readers should take.

“We’ve been saying this for a long time. The post office is becoming irrelevant, and every new rule and postage hike they come up with only hastens their slide into oblivion,” Estlack said. “We can help them get there by encouraging more of our subscribers to switch to digital newspapers such as our Enterprise-D.”

Now in its eleventh month, the all-digital version of The Clarendon Enterprise has more than 75 weekly subscribers who get all the same news, ads, and photos as readers of the paper edition see. As a bonus, digital subscribers have their version of the Enterprise in their e-mail box on Wednesdays before the paper version hits the stands.

“The user-friendly PDF files are fully searchable, small text can be blown up for easier reading, and readers can save back issues indefinitely without taking up space around the house,” Estlack said.

NNA will intervene in the Postal Service’s planned rate proceeding before the Postal Rate Commission, where it will advocate more reasonable rate hikes for newspaper mail; but Estlack said if the industry can’t stop the hike, subscription rates will go up next year if not sooner.

The cost for the Enterprise-D is only $9.95 per year compared to $30 for Texas subscribers and $35 for out of state subscribers.”

Readers can get a free sample of Enterprise-D by sending a request to news@clarendononline.com.