A Decade of Postal Mismanagement Is Costing Publishers and Catalogs

Postal officials set out recently to justify big rate increases for catalogs and publications, but all they proved was that they have been mismanaging the handling of flat mail for more than a decade.

Arguing that Periodicals (magazines and newspapers) and Standard flats (mostly catalogs) are money-losing products, the U.S. Postal Service’s exigent rate request includes above-average hikes for Standard flats and Periodicals – 9% for some magazines.

But if those products are indeed losing money, an industry coalition responded recently, it’s only because of “the extraordinary inefficiency and lack of economy of the Postal Service’s handling flat-shaped...