Why can’t readers get their newspapers in a timely manner?
Dear U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy:
It is with much angst, frustration, and hopelessness that we write this letter. The issues outlined have been in the making for several years. We’ve tried to resolve them on the local level, but to no avail.
For so long, we have bitten our tongues and remained quiet, thinking something would be done. But we have reached our breaking point and silence is no longer an option when it comes to how the United States Postal Service continues to harm the newspaper industry.
We don’t take the accusations in this letter lightly. They are merely to illustrate the plight we’re facing in rural America. We hope someone within your organization cares enough to do something.
It really boils down to one simple question: Why can’t readers get their newspapers in a timely manner from USPS?
Our newspaper, like most others around the country, rely on your postal service for delivery each week to readers who depend on us for timely community news relevant to their lives.
We pride ourselves on the hard work we do every week. In our case, almost 3,000 households depend on us for news and information that impacts their lives.
As you may know, there is a crisis facing newspapers, which have been battling many challenges in recent years in their fight for survival. Many local newspapers are staring at plummeting ad revenues, declining readership (though not the case with us), newspapers closing and communities becoming “news deserts” without access to local news reporting.
It’s terribly frustrating that your postal carriers can’t deliver the newspapers in a timely manner. We rarely go a week without a complaint about somebody not getting their newspaper. Many weeks it’s multiple complaints from various communities.
Just two months ago, you had the audacity to again raise postal rates for periodicals. In the past two years, we have experienced rates that have skyrocketed at least 30%. Yet, every time the rates go up, the service seems to get a little worse. Well, in our experience, a lot worse.
Nothing changes on our end as we follow the same process every week like clockwork. Our newspapers are printed and delivered to USPS within the same two-hour time period every week. Once we drop them off at the post office, it’s anybody’s guess as to when the newspapers will finally reach our readers. It’s a helpless feeling for us, because we realize that once the papers are dropped, we can’t do anything more about it.
We would like you to explain why it takes up to seven or eight days to get our newspapers to communities outside of our home county of Steele County, Minn. We have communities just 20 miles down the road that don’t get their newspapers for up to a week or more.
Case in point: Our Aug. 16 newspapers finally reached readers in the outlying areas the following Wednesday, Aug. 23. Seven days. No holidays involved. This happened in places like Faribault, Waterville, Albert Lea, and Brownton, to name a few.
In the past five years, we have chosen to take on the responsibility of delivering the newspapers to eight area post offices. This is an added expense for us that cuts into our already slim profits. We decided to do this because we got tired of hearing from irate customers that it took as long as a week for them to get their papers. Perhaps those calls should be routed directly to you.
We have lost readers for the simple reason that they can’t get their papers in a timely manner.
Why is it that every time we take postal questions to our local postal officials, we get a blank stare or shrug, followed by the words, “I don’t know.”? Even more alarming is when those same postal officials reach out to their superiors and can’t get answers. Often, their superiors, we’ve been told, don’t even bother returning calls for help.
Why, when we paid for an in-county saturation to send papers to every home the week of Aug. 9, did we have at least 25 documented cases of people not getting their papers? We learned one postal carrier was responsible for missing 12 of those households. And when asked what happens to the extra newspapers that don’t get delivered, we were told, “Oh, we recycle them.”
We’ve even had postal carriers share with us that sub carriers don’t think they need to deliver newspapers to patrons who don’t have any other mail that particular day.
Your service is broken and needs to be fixed. Instead of planning your next rate hike, how about figuring out how to improve service, especially in the rural areas?
Perhaps you’re not aware of it, but USPS is contributing to killing our industry in various ways. We’re losing readers because of your lackluster service. We can’t take this burden without something drastic changes.
Respectfully,
Steele County Times
Blooming Prairie and Owatonna, MN