Sherry Chandler » Punitive Postal Rates
Punitive Postal Rates
Here’s an issue that might effect all of us who write and try to publish poetry & short stories, Stamping Out Diverse Voices:
Postal rate increases are an unwelcome fact of life for every magazine publisher. But it seems the steep new increases for periodicals, scheduled to begin on July 15, will inflict undue hardship on small independent magazines that do much to inform the national discourse on politics and culture. They will be required to pay a much higher percentage increase than some of the largest magazines.
A skimpily funded coalition of small journals of opinions and ideas — running the ideological gamut from The National Review on the right to The Nation on the left — is struggling to get Washington to focus on the issue. The group’s request that the rate increase be reversed, or at least done in stages to mitigate its crippling impact, warrants the immediate attention of the House and Senate committees that oversee postal operations.
Among other things, those committees need to review the flawed process behind the new rate structure.
…According to an analysis by McGraw-Hill, many small- or medium-circulation magazines will incur rate increases exceeding 20 percent, some in excess of 30 percent.
Read the rest at the NYTimes. Call your Congress Critter.
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3 Comments
1. MY COMMENTS…&hellip replies at 11th May 2007, 9:56 am :
[...] 0956 Punitive Postal Rates 0522 Wal-Mart Sales Decline [...]
2. Jeff Hess replies at 11th May 2007, 9:56 am :
Shalom Sherry,
It’s way past time that all publications should offer multiple options to their readers like:
1. An all-electronic edition.
2. A downloadable edition.
3. A print-on-demand edition available at Kinko’s.
4. A traditional print edition available at a premium price.
It is the words that are important, not the medium.
B’shalom,
Jeff
3. sherry replies at 11th May 2007, 11:25 am :
Thank you, Jeff. That is a solution but I’m not sure how it would work for something like a poetry magazine with a circulation of 500 or so. One way or another, these changes are likely to drive a few of those shoe-string publications out of business.
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