Postal rate increase affects us all

The United States Postal Service implemented a planned adjustment of postage rates on August 29, 2021, for public and commercial mail users.

This increase will have a direct impact on public mail consumers as the cost of a 55-cent stamp has now increased to 58 cents.

The increase will also impact your local newspaper. We utilize the US Postal Service to deliver our newspaper to subscribers. The weekly cost of this service represents a significant percentage of our monthly expenses and USPS is raising our periodical mailing rate by almost 10 percent.

I can remember when everything cost a dime… A Bomb Pop from the Ice Cream truck cost a dime, a copy of the newspaper was a dime, and it cost ten cents to send a letter from coast to coast.

Granted that was in the early 1970s… 45 years ago… I have memories of my Mom flipping out at the post office when they told her stamps were going to go up three cents… Remember, that was a 30-percent increase.

Today’s rate increase is just one item in the postal service’s new business plan that also includes a weakening of service standards for mail that is moving across the country — in other words lower standards of punctuality and accuracy.

These rates and decreased quality standards are not the fault of our local post offices and post masters. On a local level, they are powerless to control the decisions handed down from the top.

Don’t take anything out on them when the mail glitches. Local postmasters are our friends and neighbors. They are doing the best they can with the tools provided by the bureaucrats up the chain.

For many community newspapers the rate increase will be a tough pill to swallow.

Right here in the Cimarron Valley, we receive weekly complaints from loyal subscribers that they are not receiving their newspapers in a timely manner. Many of these complaints come from subscribers who live several states away. There are cases of subscribers not receiving their newspaper for several weeks, only to get a bundle of six to eight back issues on the same day. Some cancel their subscriptions because they want to read their news while it is still news.

All year, the National Newspaper Association has been working with the Postal Regulatory Commission and members of Congress in an effort to pass legislation on postal reform.

My friend and NNA President Brett Wesner says, “Nothing about this scenario is good. These increases will require many newspapers to increase subscription prices to cover this new cost and readers will think we have lost our minds to charge more when USPS cannot get the paper to so many on time.”

Wesner is right. These are already trying times for newspapers across the country. It costs a good amount of money to produce a newspaper and to hit a struggling institution with increased rates and decreased standards during these times will make things even worse.

Postal rate changes will not only hit newspapers hard. Many rural residents rely on the US Postal Service to receive and pay their bills and to send personal and business correspondence.

With COVID-19’s grip on the global economy showing little sign of letting up any time soon, now is not the time to weaken the public’s faith in the Postal Service’s ability to serve the nation.

“We have been warning our member newspapers for several years now that if Congress did not enact postal reform legislation, we would wind up exactly where we are today. It is not a recipe for success,” says Wesner.

He also said that NNA continues to support postal reform legislation and has endorsed the proposed Postal Service Reform Act of 2021, introduced by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, and James Comer, R-Kentucky.

Be that as it may, the rate increases are here and they will have a direct impact on your newspaper. We will hold out for a while, but on October 31, 2021, annual local subscription rates for the Cushing Citizen, The Gusher and The Yale News will increase from $20 to $30.

Why are we waiting until October? Because we want to give our readers time to take advantage of an opportunity to lock in one more year at the old rate.

You have until Oct. 31 of this year to come to our offices at 202 N Harrison in Cushing to renew and/or extend your subscription for one year at the $20 rate. New subscribers can get one year at $20 before Oct. 31 as well.

We know you have choices in life and we appreciate your continued support of the local newspaper.

We do our best to make it relevant to you. Where else except the paper will you be able to track what happens at city hall, discover what the school board is doing with your bond money, and how the high school sports teams are doing in the overall scheme of things?

Thanks for reading

Stay Safe

Be kind to the kids at the fast food window