• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 11, 2023

Earlier this year, a postal carrier in Nebraska was trying to speed things up on his route. So he came up with the ingenious solution to simply not deliver newspapers and direct mail that was addressed to an apartment complex that was on the way, according to the Nebraska Examiner.  

All was fine until people in the complex started complaining that they weren’t getting their newspapers. The U.S. Attorney’s Office commenced an investigation.  

The now-former postal carrier was caught on video placing a mail bin into his personal vehicle, the Examiner reports.  

This episode, which led to a one-year probation for the perpetrator, is a rare one. (Well, maybe not that rare – in October, a carrier was arrested for dumping mail, including election ballots.) But it symbolizes a larger problem for publishers: the snail-pace delivery of their periodicals, even those that haven’t been dumped. 

“We have multiple reports every week of people not getting their papers, from one or two issues to a month’s worth, The Ely (Minnesota) Echo recently wrote in an editorial. “We’re already spending over $80,000 a year mailing out our products.” 

The Echo continues that, to make matters worse, “we pay first-class postage to mail out back issues.”

What is causing this problem? For one thing, it recently came out that Amazon deliveries are being given priority in overwhelmed postal offices. 

“As Postmaster General, you are responsible for ensuring that the Postal Service meets its service standards, and it is clear right now that things are not working as they should,” U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) recently wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. “Entering into contracts that your system cannot support is a breach of your responsibilities.”

Of course, issues like this are not stopping big newspaper publishers from halting their own print delivery operations and instead placing their papers in the postal system. 

This is happening as rates continue to climb. 

Let’s hope that General DeJoy heeds these complaints as he continues to try to run his financially strapped institution.