• by Ray Schultz , September 29, 2024

The Lakeland Times of Wisconsin is fighting very late postal delivery of its print newspapers. 

Newspapers have been delivered up to three weeks late, according to WXPR. 

“I have subscribers that call that don't get their papers for weeks, and they're very frustrated,” says Heather Holmes, general manager of The Northwoods River News in Rhinelander and The Lakeland Times in Minocqua, WXPR reports. 

The Lakeland Times has lost nearly 500 subscribers and $100,000 in the past four years, although there is no clear link between cause and effect. 

The Lakeland Times and The Northwoods River News are each published twice per week. 

Holmes blames restructuring at the USPS, including consolidation of distribution centers. 

Earlier this year, the News/Media Alliance charged that “service performance has remained well below published standards for years. Although the Postal Service has met its service performance “targets” in the last two fiscal years, that is only because those targets were extremely low.”

The News/Media Alliance has also condemned ever-rising rates.

However, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced last week that there will be “no rate increases in January for any market dominant products, including periodicals, marketing mail and First Class mail,” and no rate hike requests until at least July.