We’re from the government, and we’re here to help
Those of us who rely on the United States Postal Service for integral parts of our business were relieved to hear that we would not receive increases for standard mail in 2010. We were even more pleased to know that we could receive a rebate of 4 cents per copy on additional postage spent. We were starting to think that we had a true business partner. So when an agent of USPS called and wanted to visit, we were all ears. Then the truth came out.
We were told that USPS was making focused efforts on small business, and “sales reps” have been hired to convince owners and managers to invest more of their marketing dollars in the mail. The most disturbing part, however, is that these sales reps are openly seeking out customers using print media — including those who advertise in this newspaper — to convert them to mail. And we are their customer? Despite the fact that the USPS is not tax funded, it is government-owned and operated, and it should not be competing with private business. The arrogance of a government agency openly doing this bothers us the most.
We have invested much time and money in developing our rack or “demand distribution” system with more than 1,000 delivery points across central Iowa. And now we are glad we have. Our system minimizes waste, as only those who are interested in picking up papers on racks do so. We have mastered rack distribution with a pick-up rate near 96 percent. Other publications now look to us for these services, too, because we operate in such cost-effective ways. A simple look at the rack publications that corporate newspapers have launched in the last decade clearly defines this trend. Even so, rack and mail systems have their advantages. We rely on racks for Cityview, and we use mail for our lifestyle magazines. We will spend nearly a quarter million dollars on postage this year alone with checks written to an entity that openly says it will now compete with us, yet is protected from private industry competing with it.
Having it both ways doesn’t seem fair, but these kinds of efforts from the government shouldn’t surprise us. They are, after all, here to help. CV
