Marvin Runyon: angel maker

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, May 15, 1995 by Anne M. Russell

"Are you going to come down on the side of the angels?" asked a favorite industry observer when I said I was going to write an editorial about the United States Postal Service's proposed reclassification of second-class mail. The increase for non-volume mailers would be nearly 18 percent.

If we think of angels as a metaphor for our higher attributes - enlightened self-interest and commonsense - then, yes, I'm singing in the heavenly choir - and most of you should be there alongside me.

There are about 200 magazines with multimillion circulations that this editorial is not addressed to - and I trust you know who you are and will get on with reading the rest of the issue while your lawyers represent your interests in Washington. But if you come from a magazine like A., Buzz, Chile Pepper, Deneuve, E, Fly Fishing, Genre, Hypno, I.D. or Zone, hear me out. The USPS's latest rate proposal could make you an angel - not the metaphorical kind, but the sort that 7 Days is: a beloved magazine that fives on only in the industry's shared consciousness. Don't stand by and let that happen to you.

By now, we have all calculated what the recent 14 percent postal rate increase means to our individual magazines in real dollars. Postmaster General Marvin Runyon has explained that the USPS needed to raise rates - a lot. Okay, not great, but that's life. Let's look at what's in store and why it's so unjust.

The USPS wants to give volume mailers a break at the expense of the magazines that can least afford it. Take, for example, Folio:. (I said this was about enlightened self-interest, didn't I?) We, like most of you, will not be able to benefit from the volume-subclass-discount requirements: Zip Code-sorted bundles. Because we mail under 20,000 issues worldwide, we just plain can't achieve 24-piece bundles, each marked with a three-digit-or-better Zip. We print at one East Coast plant and so go to all nine postal zones from one location. Does this sound like your magazine's situation?

Second-class mailing is intended to facilitate the liberal and open dissemination of information, but whacking trade and specialty publications very definitely does not serve that First Amendment mandate.

If you feel strongly about this issue, you've got to let the Postal Rate Commission, the USPS and your trade associatons know where you stand and what you want them to do about it. The two largest trade associations, American Business Press and the Magazine Publishers of America, are already registered as full-scale lobbyists for this rate case. Individual publishers are effectively prohibited from in-person lobbying because of the time-intensive requirements, but letters can be influential because they win be read by all the postal commissioners. Here are the people to write to:

Office of the Secretary Postal Rate Commission 1333 H Street NW, Suite 300 Washington, D.C. 20268

John L. DeWeerdt U.S. Postal Service 475 L'Enfant Plaza, Room 6616 Washington, D.C. 20260-1146

I'm going to write my letter this week; I hope you will, too. If you do, please copy us on your correspondence. The hearings will nm for 10 months, so the fight definitely isn't over - and we want to keep you posted on the situation and what the trade associations are doing.