Challenges

Higher prices, slower delivery times define publishers’ major challenge

We’ve written about this before, but the United States Postal Service is a huge challenge for local news publishers.

This is not a knock on our local drivers, who are out in force, delivering all day and are challenged by their own issues with staffing shortages. But the practices at the national level, compounded by a huge increase in package shipping, is pushing your local newspaper further down the priority totem pole for delivery.

We write this to inform our many out-of-town subscribers who call our office to complain about slow mail delivery. Yes, we deliver our product to the local USPS dock at the same time every single week. After that, we are totally dependent on the postal service to get our product to the readers.

Newspaper publishers have had no shortage of challenges in recent years: drops in advertising revenue caused by social media monopolies and the coronavirus pandemic; a sometimes hostile political environment; and the same labor and staffing challenges everyone else is facing.

USPS issues

While junk mail is “job security” for the postal service, periodicals — which is what newspapers and magazines fall under — are seen as more troublesome and lower priority. But we have still been targeted for several price hikes nonetheless in recent years.

We are regularly contacted by mail subscribers from far-away locales around Texas and the nation who didn’t get their paper on their normal day. Sometimes, our far-away readers will get two or three copies on the same day, dated back that many weeks. Unfortunately, that’s a problem with no immediate solution.

The USPS has been hit hard like everyone else with staffing issues. COVID-19 forced them to shuffle and there are still jobs that were never filled, even with the solid federal benefits postal carriers and workers receive.

The founder of the USPS was Ben Franklin, who was a news and periodical publisher. Yet two and a half centuries later, the postal service is plagued by declines in mail volume (e-mail being an almost free alternative for many), and debt, most of which is due to pension obligations.

Make no mistake — we have huge appreciation for the USPS. They were a big part of our industry’s growth and important “business partner” for decades. We realize the challenges it faces as it performs its daily miracle of moving pieces of mail around the state and nation for less than a buck apiece.

Our challenges

Yet, the delivery challenges for our industry have undeniably undercut our subscriber base. (We joke that we wish we had a nickel for every subscriber lost to slow delivery times, but we actually wish we had $40 — the cost of an annual subscription.)

The Rockdale Reporter can be found on the newsstands every Wednesday, but we rely on Uncle Sam’s USPS for the rest.

One potential solution, especially for our frustrated out-of-town subscribers, is switching to an e-edition only subscription. These are replicas of the entire newspaper that “flip” just like the physical product.

These are delivered via an email link on Wednesday morning, just as we are putting papers in our newsstands. That avoids the wait that these USPS issues have caused.

We most assuredly have no plans to discontinue our print edition, as have some other papers. We understand the desire for the tactile experience and joy of “discovery” as pages are turned. It’s just that the wait-filled and expensive delivery process for your hometown paper has become burdensome due to the reasons listed above.

We also want to encourage locals to subscribe.

—K.W.C.