Small publications hit by large postal hike: some magazines may close because of increase in second-class postage

National Catholic Reporter, August 3, 2007 by Laura Lloyd

Life got more difficult for small-circulation magazines and newspapers in the United States July 15. It didn't matter if they were making a profit, struggling to make a profit or were nonprofit: They all started having to pay starkly higher postal rates--sometimes as much as 20 percent or 30 percent higher. Some publications were predicted to go out of business. Others started looking at the Internet as their primary means of distribution. At least one, The Nation, started soliciting donations from readers to offset its $500,000 jump in postal rates.

"We have an especially passionate readership and we have collected about $300,000. That's really remarkable," said Teresa Stack, The Nation's president.

This change had come about swiftly, almost below the radar for most Americans. There had been some petition drives and some lobbying in Congress for hearings to reconsider the policy. For the most part, most publications had little time to prepare for the decision by the U.S. Postal Service to raise second-class postal rates so drastically.

"I have spent much of my career around small literary magazines," said Angela Sorby, an associate professor of English at Marquette University in Milwaukee. When The Nation asked her to sign a petition protesting the postal increase, she did. "I think, at the very least, nonprofits should get a break on their postage," she said.

Sorby said most nonproflts are operating with money from universities and arts organizations and they don't have extra money to pay the added expense. "A lot of literary magazines are going online but I think a paper record is a very important thing to have," she added.

Struggling voices for poetry and the avant-garde going digital out of desperation; offbeat, interesting publications facing closing: How did this scenario come to pass in a nation that prides itself on freedom of speech?

Most observers say the rate hike reflected the industry concerns of Time-Warner, a media conglomerate and large magazine publisher. "Their bottom line is their bottom line," said Stack, adding that large publishers formerly subsidized in their postal rates the rates of smaller publications. Stack believes this is no longer so, which reflects, in her opinion, an almost unAmerican move away from a general support of diverse editorial voices. Now, big-circulation publishers are telling the United States Postal Service that their distribution efficiencies entifie them to lower increases--in the order of 11 percent--and that smaller publications can realize similar efficiencies and lower increases. That argument doesn't carry much weight with the small magazines and newspapers, which know that many of the efficiencies require large economies of scale to succeed.

What does that leave for small publications stuck with onerous second-class postage hikes?

Battle in the court of public opinion and in the U.S. Congress.

Timothy Karr of Freepress.com, campaign director of the movement to roll back the rate increases, said there is a "strong coalition" of "such a broad base of every political stripe" poised to take on this issue. "More than 200 publishers have signed petitions to come together and organize to express their concerns," he said.

He believes there will be an effort this fall to pressure members of Congress to hold hearings by the appropriate committees to examine the issue. One of his particular gripes is that the postal service didn't inform those affected in sufficient time. He also sees the "lobbying clout" of TimeWarner as having had undue influence on the process. A spokesman for Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), chairman of the subcommittee on the Federal Work force, Post Office and the District of Columbia Committee in Congress, said there might be some consideration of the issue before the August recess, although nothing can be stated for sure.

Meanwhile, critics of the higher postage, such as The Nation magazine, assert they are not backing down. "We're still fighting," Stack said. "Maybe we're naive, maybe it's a long shot, but there are postal rate cases that go before congressional committees."

She says people on her side are trying to build influence with important legislators. "We will continue to fight it. We have people talking to people," Stack said. "Danny Davis will hold hearings."

In addition to the money, there is the moral dimension, she said. The United States has long attempted to make it easier for diverse journalism to prosper as a manifestation of the freedom of speech and the press guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Sometimes that has meant keeping postal rates more equitable between small and large magazines and newspapers.

"When you have right on your side," Stack said, "then you know what needs to be discussed and the problem that needs to be called into question."

[Laura Lloyd is a freelance writer in Kansas City, Mo.]