What Happened to Postal Reform?

As reported last issue Congress was finally getting ready to fix the U.S. Postal Service. It didn’t happen. A Democratic attempt to tie Republicans to big oil companies, lingering issues with federal highway funding and the start of the annual budget process tied up most of their time, upending plans to begin debate in the Senate over a bipartisan plan to overhaul how USPS manages and delivers the mail. There will be roughly one month left when the House and Senate return from their two-week Easter and Passover recess to complete postal reform before the end of a moratorium on closing up to 223 processing centers and thousands of post offices. At the request of lawmakers, USPS agreed to wait until May 15 to begin the closings process, which is expected to start in late May, be suspended in late August for the election and holiday-mailing season and then resume again next January.

Source: PostPolitics

Same ol' Same ol' for USPS Finances

February is the fifth month of the USPS fiscal year that began in October and shows a loss of $1.1 billion ( USPS Preliminary Financial Information / Unaudited ). This brings the YTD loss for five months to $5.67 billion. If the Retiree Health Benefit Fund prepayment to the federal government, and the workman’s compensation adjustment are taken out, they had a controllable operating loss of $151 million. The trends of revenue and volume loss continue.

USPS Grades Poorly on Loss-Making Products

US regulators said that 10 loss-making market dominant products contributed “substantially” to the Postal Service’s $5.1bn loss in the 2011 financial year. The latest annual compliance determination (ACD) report from the Postal Regulatory Commission said USPS products priced below-cost accounted for $1.6bn in losses for the federal agency last year. Two of the major offenders were Standard Mail Flats and Periodicals. Standard Mail Flats saw its losses increase from $577m in the 2010 financial year to $643m in the 12 months up to the end of September 2011. Periodicals made a $609m loss in 2011, while Standard Mail Parcels/Not-Flat Machinables made a $112m loss. Among various proposals for postal reform at the moment, there have been calls around Washington to force through a sudden price increase to ensure “underwater” postal products do recoup their costs. However, there are fears that such a move could drive more mailers away from the physical mail channel.

Source: Post & Parcel

Magazines' Digital Circulation Doubles / But Remains Small

Magazines more than doubled their paid digital circulation in the most recent reporting period, but print remains the overwhelming majority of their business, according to a new analysis by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Digital circulation soared to an estimated 3.29 million in the second half of 2011 from 1.46 million in the year-earlier period, a 125% increase, according to publishers' reports with the Audit Bureau. Despite all that growth, however, digital remains about 1% of magazines' total paid and verified circulation.

Source: AdAge

USPS Contact Information Now Available

Contact information is now available for your postal representatives on the local level with a new valuable USPS resource tool. From District Managers, Plant Managers, and Postmasters, to Shipping, Mail Entry, and Consumer & Industry Affairs Managers; this much anticipated listing provides complete contact information for each local postal area and district across the nation. You will find the list on the RIBBS website under Area Contact Listing. Click here.