USPS is Wasting Money on Unwanted Services, Publishing Executive Says

A recent Office of Inspector General report cited unofficial “Hot 2C” (or “Hot Periodicals”) programs as a major reason for the extensive—and expensive—manual processing of magazines and newspapers that supposedly help make periodicals a money-loser for the USPS. “Periodicals publishers have repeatedly made clear that they do not desire and are not willing to pay for ‘hot’ processing," Jim O’Brien, Vice President, Distribution & Postal Affairs for Time Inc., responded yesterday in a letter (full text is below) to the OIG. “Every publisher that we at Time Inc. have spoken with is quite willing to live within the USPS’ published