Why We Should Give a Damn About Saving the USPS:
"Print is dead." I hear it all the time. People love to say it. "No one reads magazines anymore."Here's the thing, though: Print isn't dead—at least not yet. Digital is growing at an aggressive rate, but it hasn't obliterated print. In fact, according to a recent survey by AdWeek, 98.6 percent of all magazine consumption is still rooted in print. And with the majority of magazine readers reading print, then publishers still need to be concerned with mailing a print product—even if it feels like the U.S. Postal Service can't get it together.
It's not the USPS that failed us—it's Congress. The USPS can't make any major moves without its approval. We've all read the stories—the USPS isn't really broke; it's just been mandated by congress that it pre-fund future retiree health benefits, which costs the USPS over $5 billion per year. This is something no other federal agency is required to do; in fact, even few corporate plans are fully-prefunded. Esquire, Forbes and even my publication, The Nation have all covered it. And Senators Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR) are jointly sponsoring legislation which would reverse the mandate.
See, the discounted rates to mail magazines...were set up as a tactical way to honor the freedom of the press and to give a price break to media outlets educating the public...
Let me be clear: Just because Congress has turned the USPS into a model of inefficiency does not mean that I support privatization...What it means is that we should treat the USPS like any other company that is faced with necessary changes. Let's remove the $5.5 billion/year roadblock to let it do its job and grow. Let's support a Congress that values a free press; that isn't focusing on slash-and-burn techniques to save the institution, but rather gives it room to adapt; that reinvigorates the USPS's role in American communities, rural and urban...
