Instead of raising rates, NAA believes that the Postal Service’s financial difficulties require a legislative solution. To this end, NAA is working with other mailers for appropriate legislative reforms. NAA supports the elimination of the retiree health benefits prefunding requirement, relief from the CSRS overpayment, and better aligning of facilities with needs.

But the NNA did find something it liked in the exigency rate proposal- discounts that would benefit its members! So, it suggests that the PRC approve the portion of the exigency request that would extend the volume incentive currently in effect for Saturation flats mailers (e.g. Valpak) to High-Density flats, which just happen to be the types of mailings often used by newspapers.

National Newspaper Association (NNA), a community newspaper organization of over 2,000 members, today filed its formal opposition to the United States Postal Service’s proposal to end Saturday mail delivery. NNA has intervened on behalf of its newspapers in a proceeding before the Postal Regulatory Commission, which will issue an advisory opinion later this year on ending Saturday mail.

The final decision on six-day mail delivery will be made by Congress, which has reaffirmed Saturday mail requirements annually for nearly 30 years.

The Postal Service has requested the PRC’s support for five-day mail service. In a petition to the Commission, it said the end of Saturday mail would mean:

No street delivery of mail will occur on Saturdays;

No mail pickups, including blue collection boxes, will occur on Saturdays;

No weekend processing of mail in plants, except for Express Mail and some advertising mail will occur over the weekend;

Post Offices will remain open; and

Measurements of service performance will be reset to reflect the changes.

USPS said it expects to save $3.1 billion a year from the cutbacks. It is projected to lose over $7 billion in the current fiscal year.

“NNA is a long-time supporter of the Postal Service and it encourages its members to use the mail for delivery. We firmly believe that the solution to its financial woes will not be found in such an extreme cutback in service. We know that many small newspapers publishing Saturday issues will be deeply affected. We also believe the slowing of bill payments to small businesses will affect Main Street America at a critical time in our economy,” Cheryl Kaechele, NNA President, said.

The Postal Service has underestimated the public’s concern about the change, Max Heath, NNA Postal Chairman, said.

“I know that USPS has persuaded itself that a lot of Americans believe Saturday delivery is dispensable,” Heath said. “To the extent that is true, it is not a good sign for the future of our nation’s universal service if people do not care whether the mail arrives. Fortunately, I believe the polls are misreading the public’s mood on this topic. As the old song said, ‘You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.’ This change will affect the delivery of medicines, home movies and timely bill payments. People who already are cutting into grace periods for credit card payments are going to see an impact on their credit scores. Moreover, the small businesses like our newspapers and their advertisers will see a new sluggishness in bills going out and checks coming in. That cannot possibly be good news in this economy.

“The needs of those who pay the bills, mailers, need more consideration. If mail volume declines more than projected, there is no way back.”"

Heath said NNA firmly supported the Postal Service’s request for restructuring of some retirement fund expenses and believes a refund for overpayment into pension trust funds should be seriously examined.

“This change is more of a high stakes gamble, with a lower payoff, than experts can see so far,” he said. “It is impossible to accurately predict the unintended consequences that will flow from this move. Ending Saturday mail should not be considered until better alternatives have been exhausted.”

National Newspaper Association (NNA), a community newspaper organization of over 2,000 members, today filed its formal opposition to the United States Postal Service’s proposal to end Saturday mail delivery. NNA has intervened on behalf of its newspapers in a proceeding before the Postal Regulatory Commission, which will issue an advisory opinion later this year on ending Saturday mail.

The final decision on six-day mail delivery will be made by Congress, which has reaffirmed Saturday mail requirements annually for nearly 30 years.

The Postal Service has requested the PRC’s support for five-day mail service. In a petition to the Commission, it said the end of Saturday mail would mean:

No street delivery of mail will occur on Saturdays;

No mail pickups, including blue collection boxes, will occur on Saturdays;

No weekend processing of mail in plants, except for Express Mail and some advertising mail will occur over the weekend;

Post Offices will remain open; and

Measurements of service performance will be reset to reflect the changes.

USPS said it expects to save $3.1 billion a year from the cutbacks. It is projected to lose over $7 billion in the current fiscal year.

“NNA is a long-time supporter of the Postal Service and it encourages its members to use the mail for delivery. We firmly believe that the solution to its financial woes will not be found in such an extreme cutback in service. We know that many small newspapers publishing Saturday issues will be deeply affected. We also believe the slowing of bill payments to small businesses will affect Main Street America at a critical time in our economy,” Kaechele said.

The Postal Service has underestimated the public’s concern about the change, Heath said.

“I know that USPS has persuaded itself that a lot of Americans believe Saturday delivery is dispensable,” Heath said. “To the extent that is true, it is not a good sign for the future of our nation’s universal service if people do not care whether the mail arrives. Fortunately, I believe the polls are misreading the public’s mood on this topic. As the old song said, ‘You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.’ This change will affect the delivery of medicines, home movies and timely bill payments. People who already are cutting into grace periods for credit card payments are going to see an impact on their credit scores. Moreover, the small businesses like our newspapers and their advertisers will see a new sluggishness in bills going out and checks coming in. That cannot possibly be good news in this economy.

“The needs of those who pay the bills, mailers, need more consideration. If mail volume declines more than projected, there is no way back.”"

Heath said NNA firmly supported the Postal Service’s request for restructuring of some retirement fund expenses and believes a refund for overpayment into pension trust funds should be seriously examined.

“This change is more of a high stakes gamble, with a lower payoff, than experts can see so far,” he said. “It is impossible to accurately predict the unintended consequences that will flow from this move. Ending Saturday mail should not be considered until better alternatives have been exhausted.”

The system works like this. Buy a wonderful gift that’s worth more than 10 cents for someone who lives far away from you. Wrap it carefully in a crush-proof container. Then, while under the influence of prescribed medications, decide sending the gift through the U.S. mail is a better idea then soaking it in meat juice before tossing it to a pack of hungry lions.

You get the idea.

After the column was linked to by this and other web sites frequented by postal workers, Beth apparently started getting comments that were less than appreciative of her sense of humor. She responded on Sunday with more of her trademark wit:

I stand corrected on several key points. First, the USPS does not soak packages in meat juice. Then they do not throw them to a pack of hungry lions. The USPS, in fact, does not really have any lions at your local post office. The lions are at the zoo. The postal service no longer has any lions because it switched to elephants in a cost saving measure adopted in 1978. The USPS discovered that elephants are much more efficient at processing fragile packages, and besides, they’re willing to work for peanuts.

And so on. If you really feel like suffering, you can read the whole sorry mess here.

In Beth’s defense, though, I’d like to vouch for the fact that Beth can be funny: here’s the email Beth sent to our feedback address after we linked to her article:

From Beth Nauss
to feedback10@postalnews.com,
date Dec 18, 2007 1:14 AM

12/18/07

Hello!

I doscovered that you reproduced material on your website to which I hold the copyright and you did so without my permission. Please delete the link and the material immediately and contact me.

Thank you.
Beth Nauss

Apparently Beth hadn’t realized that when she clicked on the headline at postalnews.com, she was taken to the Reading Eagle web site. (You’d think the big logo and even bigger picture of herself might have been a tipoff, but apparently not.)

And then it dawned on me: Beth was just cracking another of her wonderful jokes! It was that trademark “humor”!

So I played along, “humorously” pointing out to Beth that I didn’t own the Reading Eagle web site, and that if she really didn’t want people to read her columns, she really needed to the people who kept posting them on the Reading Eagle web site!

Beth must have laughed until she cried at that one! And maybe that’s why I haven’t heard back from her?

By Friday morning, when we gathered to critique the day’s paper and plan Saturday’s, a group of people in the newsroom were speaking uncharitably about our Web site. These earnest colleagues were complaining that we had given the story to Cleveland television and all other competitors by putting it on the Web. We had invited competitors to come and report the story that no one knew as well as we did for those several hours on Thursday.

Rep’s aim is to inform you quickly, on paper or online

Postal Service should reinstate tickets for waits

Of course they don’t- because as any postal employee should know, there is no such policy. Tax bills are first class mail. First class mail doesn’t require “return postage”- if a piece is undeliverable, it’s returned to sender without any additional charge.

The check’s not in the mail

Dave’s problem with the USPS is twofold- he doesn’t like the new rates, and he doesn’t like the idea that the USPS wants to charge more for items that need to be sorted by hand- like, well, newspapers.

Dave specifically finds fault with the increase in rates for “In-County” periodicals, which he says will go up as much as thirty percent under the proposed rates. What Dave doesn’t mention is exactly what the current price is. If you take a look at the most recent USPS RPW report, you’ll find that so far this year the US Postal Service has handled 373 million pieces of In-County Periodical mail. For the same period, the USPS has taken in 34.8 million dollars in revenue for that mail. Do the math- the average postage on an In County paper is 9.3 cents! A thirty percent increase would boost that to a positively astronomical twelve cents!!

Not only that, but Dave contends that the new rate structure would “force our local papers to leave the local post office to be sorted elsewhere before coming back to the local post office for delivery. Gone would be same-day local delivery.”

Can you believe that? Not only will it cost twelve cents, but it might not be delivered the same day?

According to Dave, this is crazy, because he is positive the USPS is making a profit delivering his papers for nine cents apiece. Now at this point, you would think that Dave would just take his business elsewhere. After all, if it’s so obviously profitable to distribute newspapers for nine cents each, there must be tons of folks clamoring to get into the business. But no- Dave seems slavishly loyal to the good old post office. He says that “It’s going to cost our industry a lot of money to prove to postal officials that they are making a profit on the business we do with them”.

Hunh? If it’s obvious, it shouldn’t take much cash to prove it, right?

Unless of course, “proving it” means greasing enough lobbyist’s palms to get continued subsidies for in county papers written into postal reform legislation. But Dave couldn’t possibly mean that, could he?

Ozarks Newsstand – USPS uses child’s ploy to ask for more and more

(note- at the registration prompt use login:bugmenot password:bugmenot)