I haven’t had time to look far enough into this to know all the details. But even in its outlines I can tell it’s a pretty big deal — and one that doesn’t seem likely to get a lot of attention. The short and sweet of it is that Time Warner has proposed and postal regulators have accepted a proposal which is actually reducing postage costs for mega-mags like Time and Newsweek while dramatically raising them for small independent publishers. From small mags on the right and left I’ve been deluged in recent weeks by letters saying the new rates are tipping them into financial crisis.
Here for instance is a passage from a blast email I got this morning from the Nation’s David Corn …
Teresa Stack, The Nation’s president, explains the crisis this way: Postal regulators have accepted a scheme designed in part by lobbyists for the Time-Warner media conglomerate. In short, mailing costs for mega-magazines like Time-Warner’s own Time, People and Sports Illustrated will go up less than other magazines or even decrease. But smaller publications like The Nation will be hit by an enormous rate increase of half a million dollars a year.
To be clear, I’m not pitching for contributions to The Nation, a publication we have no ties to. I reprint that passage only by way of example and because the email was in my inbox this morning. I’ve gotten similar messages from other publications on the left and right and in recent weeks.
Anyway, since TPM mails nothing but an occasional utility bill, I can tell you without reservation that it’s not a matter of self-interest for us as a business. But it is a matter of self-interest for every consumer of independent media. And that certainly includes us and I suspect you as well. It’s one thing to rail against the MSM and say you get your information from the internet. But still today and I suspect for some time into the future a lot of the independent news you read on the web still comes from reporting sustained by independent print-based publications that are going to be heavily affected by these changes.
For two hundred years US postal rate has been geared to support independent media and political discourse. It’s something small magazine publishes and press theory types understand very well but it’s not that widely understood in the general public. If that comes to an end it will be a very big deal. Here’s a link to where you can find out more.
