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Monday, October 18, 2021

Community newspaper publishers tell House panel that poor mail delivery is costing them 'subscribers by the droves'

Delayed mail delivery is costing newspapers time, money and subscribers, who are missing out on timely news, shopping opportunities, public notices and critical community activities, two community newspaper publishers told the House Subcommittee on Government Operations Friday.

John Galer, publisher of the Hillsboro Journal-News and nine other Illinois newspapers, and Dorothy Leavell, editor and publisher of the Chicago Crusader, provided comments to the panel, which is investigating mail delays in the Chicago in recent months.

Galer, whose mail to addresses outside his immediate delivery area is handled by postal facilities in St. Louis, told the subcommittee, “Newspaper delivery outside the delivery offices where our mail is entered has been a problem for many years. In the past 18 months, it has reached a crisis point and our publishers are losing subscribers by the droves.”

Leavell said, “Timeliness is critical and reliable mail delivery is an essential component of a successful newspaper like ours. Mail delivery, however, is a perpetual challenge for a newspaper like ours. It has never been as reliable as we need it to be. During the pandemic, it has been worse than ever.”

The publishers told of copies being delayed a week and sometimes several weeks. "Leavell said her office was required recently to send replacement copies to one reader who did not receive his newspapers at all for several summer months," the National Newspaper Association reports.

Galer, NNA's vice chair, said Congress shouldn't rely on the U.S. Postal Service’s periodic performance reports, which are based on scanning of mail in processing plants, because newspapers are sorted by hand. "Although the most recent report for Periodicals outside the county of mailing showed on-time delivery under 60%, the newspaper experience may be even worse," NNA said.

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