Minonline has reported that "Despite organized resistance to the U.S. Postal Service's proposed 8% rate increase for periodical postage, the magazine industry may need to adjust to the new reality of pricing, suggests Postal Regulatory Commission Chairman Ruth Goldway. While periodicals face the stiffest rate hikes among the classes of mail addressed by the USPS plan, "On the face of it now, this 8% increase that they are presenting is something that is justified," Goldway says in an exclusive interview in next week's issue of min. As the PRC is about to start its 90-day evaluation of the USPS proposal, Goldway says periodicals have fallen behind in covering the actual costs the USPS incurs in handling the class of mail. "The law does require that each class of mail in aggregate cover its attributable costs," says Goldway. "It does have to pay for what it costs to actually process the mail on the machines and deliver the mail to people's homes. And periodicals have been a class of mail that throughout the 90s has just barely covered its institutional costs and in the last several years has gone below water as we say." It is the industry's case to prove that rates shouldn't rise considerably now to make up for this shortfall, she says. A more thorough evaluation of the costs of handling magazines is underway, "and we may get different information," she says. "But the bottom line is that the requirements for now of the law mean that the Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission are supposed to make sure that periodicals cover their cost." Read the full story here.
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July 12 2010 08:09 AM
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