PEAK TO PEAK - You just never know what’s going to come out of Washington these days. It’s just one big—usually unpleasant—surprise after another.
On March 27, our Peak Perspective started like this:
“We’re back on the roller coaster.
“Earlier this week, the National Newspaper Association notified us that we should be lobbying for the termination of Postmaster Louis DeJoy as a result of the devastation into which he has thrust the Postal Service during his tenure. The most emergent issue was a proposed rate increase as high as 11.6% scheduled for July.”
Well, DeJoy was “terminated,” but there’s been no successor named. And the newly appointed Board of Governors went ahead and voted to institute the raise in postage rates by 9.3% on July 13—not quite the 11.6% we feared, but bad enough.
Every week, as we haul our precious papers to the Post Office, we feel the twinge of loss of just a little more of our narrow profit margin.
Those of us who were born in the last century (doesn’t that sound dramatic?) probably remember getting our news from the variety of print papers that were available (and our TV news from just a few well-known men on the major networks). That was all blown to pieces with the overwhelming advent of the internet and the World Wide Web and a million or so streaming news sources.
So maybe it’s not important to you to get an actual hard copy of The Mountain-Ear each week, and you are happy to read it online and follow our news in our podcasts. If that’s the case, you won’t mind it if the new “Delivering for America” plan of the US Postal Service results in delays in delivery of your print copy.
National Newspaper Association Chair Martha Diaz-Aszkenazy, who publishes the San Fernando (California) Valley Sun, says “This action is extremely disturbing. Punitive rate increases have been counter-productive, only serving to destroy mail volume. Huge losses have continued to mount…. The ‘Delivering for America’ plan has clearly failed.”
But some of us are devoted to our print versions of our local newspaper. We need the crisp touch of the newsprint (and we haven’t forgotten that there’s another potential sucker punch waiting for us as dithering over tariffs of Canadian products, including newsprint, continue in Washington) and need something concrete to save when our kids score a goal, or win an art award, or graduate from high school.
The roller coaster leaves us hanging, still, waiting for some kind of final decision to come out of Washington. But meanwhile, if you can fight your newsprint jones and read The Mountain-Ear online, you may make life easier for yourself and less expensive for us.
We’ll be here for you, whether you want to hold a hard copy, read off the Web, or listen to a podcast. We hope you’ll be here for us, too.
Missing your news because the post office doesn't deliver in a timely manner anymore? Enjoy an additional 90 days of your subscription by switching from print to online. Valid for all current print subscribers. Simply email your mailing address info to frontdesk@themountainear.com, to begin your online subscription. Then decide in the next month if online is for you, or if you prefer print! Questions? Call us at 303-810-5409.
