by Wendell Lenhart
New postal rates and regulations for newspapers became effective last week and some of the changes are sure to affect subscribers of the Republican-Times.
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As with the increase in rates and the change in how rates are charged for first-class mail earlier this year, things are going to be different for newspapers. Besides a rate increase, how we sack and bundle our newspapers for delivery has changed.
The good news is that subscribers in Trenton and Grundy County as well as those within the 646 zip code areas should see little, if any, changes in the timely delivery of their newspaper. We have always received good, dependable service from our local and area post offices and I don’t expect that to change.
What will be changing is the delivery of newspapers that must travel quite a distance to reach their subscribers and most of these travel through the area distribution center in Kansas City. The new regulations will charge newspapers by the piece as they always have, and now, will also charge for the number of bundles and containers it takes to mail those papers. The new sorting requirements will force more newspapers into fewer sacks, which the postal service says will allow for greater efficiency since the number of sacks they will have to handle will be reduced.
In theory, this will allow papers to be sorted by flat sorting machines at the distribution center and get them on to their destinations sooner. While we receive great service from our local postal employees, I foresee problems with papers getting through the distribution center in Kansas City. Whereas previously we could sack some papers to their destination post office, those papers will now have to be handled at Kansas City before heading to their final address and it is probably going to take longer for them to get there.
While we will be able to offer dependable service and timely delivery to our 646 area subscribers, those farther away will not be as fortunate. We already have a large number of readers from out of the area who get their local news by logging on to our Internet website, www.republican-times.com; these changes are only going to accelerate that trend. It looks as though the Internet will be the only timely way for us to get hometown information to those living a great distance from here.
I appreciate the efforts of our local postal officials who will respond to our delivery questions and help us get things right for the customer. They seem to understand that when we lose a customer, the postal service loses a customer. I don’t think the people in Washington, D.C. understand that.
For those of you who receive your paper by mail, or know someone who gets the R-T, and it has to travel outside the 646 area, please bear with us while we implement the changes mandated by the postal service. If you have delivery concerns, please contact our office and we will make every attempt to help you as these changes continue to take place.