MPA Approves $10M Fund For Postal Reform Battle

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, March, 2000 by Jennifer Owens

A three-year campaign will be waged on Capitol Hill and at grass-roots level.

The Magazine Publishers of America's board or directors, in late January, approved a $10 million war chest to fight a proposed 15 percent postal increase for periodicals next year and to push for long-term postal reform.

MPA president Nina Link says the association plans to fight the rate hike "with every weapon at our disposal," including an extensive magazine advertising campaign.

"The Postal Service's message to the magazine industry is clear," she says. "Our readers and we are being told that we have to pay the price for the Postal Service's inherent inefficiencies and out-of-control cost structure. It is intolerable."

To fight the hike as well as to push for postal reform, the MPA plans to spend $10 million on a three-year campaign that will be waged both on Capitol Hill and at the grass-roots level. While details are still being worked out, Link says the MPA is now interviewing for a high-powered lobbying and public relations firm to help strengthen its ongoing internal efforts.

Link says the MPA also will seek support from other impacted industries, such as newspaper and book publishers and publishing vendors. Additionally, the MPA plans to explore the option of working with private companies to deliver magazines.

Link says the MPA board is united in its support of the campaign. "They really want to make a statement, and they want something to happen," she says.

"No one should underestimate the difficulty of the task the MPA is undertaking," said Don Logan, Time Inc. chairman, president and CEO, and MPA board member, in a statement. "But this effort must be made and we support it fully."