An End to the Postal Service’s Wall Street Journal Subsidy?

Mail delivery of many newspapers and magazines could soon be delayed a day because of a new U.S. Postal Service program to streamline processing of flat mail. Postal officials believe the changes will significantly reduce the costs attributed to the Periodicals class, which the Postal Service has targeted for rate increases because the class is supposedly not profitable.

Included in the plan is the end of “Hot 2C” processing that provides expedited—and expensive—manual handling of such time-sensitive publications as The Wall Street Journal and other daily and weekly publications. Another aspect of the plan is nationwide Critical Entry Times—deadlines for drop-shipped