Postal issues threaten future of industry, head of N.D. Newspaper Association says

Late and inconsistent mail delivery of newspapers is threatening the future of the industry, the director of the North Dakota Newspaper Association said during a roundtable discussion Monday with representatives from the United States Postal Service.

Cecile Wehrman, the NDNA's executive director and a weekly newspaper publisher herself, said weekly newspapers especially are susceptible to what she considers poor service from the USPS. Weeklies generally are their community's sole provider of news, she said, and some either have limited online offerings or none at all. When those newspapers arrive late, it adversely affects their ability to inform community members of important information and events.

"Over the next 10 minutes, I will detail the impacts of poor postal service on our industry," Wehrman said as she took her turn to speak during the meeting. "But there is a larger issue here, and that is the public's right to know. When citizens are precluded from timely notice of city, county, state and school government actions, it goes to the heart of democracy. This election season especially, the role of newspapers to inform citizens is absolutely critical."

U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, convened the discussion, bringing together three representatives from the United States Postal Service, along with Wehrman, Secretary of State Michael Howe, Horace City Administrator Brent Holper and Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski to discuss issues ranging from newspaper delivery to postmarking absentee mail ballots. The meeting comes as the USPS looks to bring changes to mail processing across North Dakota and amid numerous reports of mail delivery issues across the states.

Representing the USPS was Postal Service Government Liaison Michael Gordon, Minnesota-North Dakota District Manager Angela Bye and Kathy Hand, a senior division processing director.

Wehrman outlined a number of concerns and complaints that have been forwarded to her from newspapers across the state.

Among her concerns were "whole print runs of newspapers disappearing with no one to call, no remedy for finding them and not even a reason for the lack of service (and) subscribers canceling their subscription because they are tired of receiving their weekly newspapers seven to 10 days late, or even several at a time."

Further, she said, "a lack of timely delivery coupled with high postal costs is even threatening the ability of newspapers to retain the right to carry public notice, one of the main reasons we exist."

She said that "when papers don't show up, there is no way to fix it." She also said newspapers are paying extra for services that they aren't receiving.

"The postal service is making (newspapers) look bad and we have nowhere to call for help," Wehrman said. "Poor postal service is killing newspaper relevance with every late delivery. Add in rate increases of up to 53% over the past three years and newspapers can't take much more."

Newspapers are working on an expectation that the USPS will provide next-day delivery, Wehrman said; the USPS representatives at the meeting said that's unrealistic, saying two to nine days is the agency standard.

"There is a clear difference of opinion here. I get it," Hoeven said. "But we're actually here to see if we can help solve some problems. If Cecile's members have got a problem, and you'll hear this from other folks, too, and they call the local post office and they can't get someone who can solve it. That's a problem. No. 1, I'm trying to create some consistency of expectation."

The USPS representatives defended the agency's service, however, and said they don't believe the issues are as bad as Wehrman says. Most service issues that do exist are the result of compounding circumstances, such as staffing issues and revenue declines, they said.

"We're going to more places with less mail each year," said Postal Service Government Liaison Michael Gordon. "That has obviously caused financial and operational problems."

One of the biggest issues, according to Gordon, is the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which made the Postal Service advance pay for employees' benefits for at least 50 years and set rules for the cost of postage making it so it can't be higher than inflation. The postal service, while an element of the government, functions more like a business and has to make money since it doesn't receive direct funding from Congress and has to fund itself.

An audit of the Minnesota-North Dakota postal district found numerous issues and 131,000 pieces of delayed mail across the two states. To address issues, Bye said the agency needs concrete details when issues do occur so the USPS is able to track down those issues and to be notified when they do occur.

But Bye said to Wehrman: "There is no mail sitting there for days on any route, in any of my facilities."

She also said she has not had any issues "coming through my plate for North Dakota specifically that I can recall over the last four or five months," Bye said. "I'm not saying they're not happening."

In the locations she oversees, "it's not like it was. They're getting the mail out more times than not," she said.

At Hoeven's insistence, what did get accomplished during the meeting was setting up dialogue to address issues. Many shared stories of simply not getting a clear answer from the postal service about delivery issues.

There was also acknowledgment that the meetings previously held were less than desirable. For example, when the USPS held a public meeting in December, few knew it was to happen - even Mayor Bochenski didn't know - and the USPS representatives who attended refused to answer questions from audience members.

"I apologize if that first couple (meetings) were difficult for you," said Hand, who also attended a December meeting. "It was very frustrating and after that time we went back and said 'this is very frustrating to the general public' and those rules were eased up just a little bit."

Secretary of State Howe addressed issues with absentee ballots not being postmarked. Under North Dakota Century Code, if a ballot is postmarked the day prior to the election it can be accepted regardless of when it's received by a county. The issue comes when a postmark is not given, which was at especially high numbers during the primary election as compared to previous years.

"We had reports from several counties, eastern counties, western counties, that absentee ballots are not being postmarked and that was unusual," Howe said. "The United States Postal Service has been a great partner and we had some longtime employees that said 'yeah this is unusual.'"

The Postal Service officials said that if they can get specific information on the occasions of these issues, they can investigate further and ensure that they will be ready to go for the November election.

"We always attempt, regardless of whether or not there's a stamp on it or not, to postmark every ballot," Gordon said. "We have 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and they all have different election rules ... which makes it very difficult for the Postal Service because you have a North Dakota ballot, but you may be voting absentee in another city."

The roundtable also discussed issues with cluster box units in Horace and the issues that the city has had ensuring that mail is being delivered. The issues stem from cluster box units, a group of mailboxes for a neighborhood, oftentimes not being put into a location that the Postal Service can deliver to. The postal service said that it would continue meetings to ensure that its standards are being uniformly put out and enforced across the area.

Hoeven had worked with Postmater General Louis DeJoy to set up Monday's meeting. He is calling for the USPS to be transparent on planned changes and to answer questions or concerns from constituents.

Reprinted with permission.