[MGP-Forum Announce] McChesney warns new postal rates disastrous to small publications

Wed Apr 18 17:17:59 CDT 2007

Thanks to Bill¹s heads-up I checked with the printer for the magazine I
publish (circulation 128,000) and our rep confirmed that the potential
increase looks to be as bad as Bob McChesney¹s piece says.  This is truly
terrible news for small magazines.  Hopefully not-for-profit and other small
publishers ‹ and the printers who serve them and thus are also threatened by
this ‹ can find a way to join in the chorus that FreePress is orchestrating.

Tom 

-- 
Tom Stites
Publisher, UU World magazine
Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
tstites at uua.org
617-948-6504
617-742-7025 (fax)

www.uuworld.org
www.uua.org

From: Jessica Duda <jduda at american.edu>
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:33:27 -0400
To: Bill Densmore <mediagiraffe at journ.umass.edu>
Cc: <post at mgp-forum.org>
Subject: Re: [MGP-Forum Announce] McChesney warns new postal rates
disastrous to small publications

The Nation reported yesterday that this postal rate increase would raise
their annual costs by $500,000. They too cited McChesney's CommonDreams
article. 

Incidentally, the US Postal Service is also mentioned in the US
Constitution. Paul Starr concludes in The Creation of the Media that the US
Postal Service subsidies for news media played a large role in continential
unity (aka democracy) compared to the British system that impaired the
"popular" press with the Stamp Tax of 1712.

Jessica Duda
American University

-----post-bounces at mgp-forum.org wrote: -----

> To: post at mgp-forum.org
> From: Bill Densmore <mediagiraffe at journ.umass.edu>
> Sent by: post-bounces at mgp-forum.org
> Date: 04/16/2007 06:37PM
> Subject: [MGP-Forum Announce] McChesney warns new postal rates disastrous to
> small publications
> 
> 
> Small publications could be forced out of business by proposed postal
> rates which favor larger magazines, according to an email being
> circulated by Robert McChesney, the University of Illinois media scholar
> who co-founded the advocacy group FreePress.net.
> 
> Here is the text. While I don't know if his analysis of the effect of the
> rates is correct, certainly postal rates have played a pivotal role in our
> democracy since the 18th century, so changes should be watched carefully.
> Are they?
> 
> -- bill
> 
> -------------------------------------
> Bill Densmore, director/editor
> The Media Giraffe Project
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:10:00 -0500
> From: Bob McChesney <rwmcches at uiuc.edu>
> To: rwmcches at uiuc.edu
> Subject: Post Office to First Amendment: Drop Dead 5
> 
> Dear friend, relative, or acquaintance of Bob McChesney,
>  
> The news media are covering the tragic murders in Virginia this morning,
> and as they do an extraordinarily significant story is slipping through
> the cracks.
>  
> On very rare occasions I send a message to everyone in my email address
> book on an issue that I find of staggering importance and urgency. (My
> address book includes pretty much everyone who emails me in one form or
> another, and I apologize if you get this message more than once.) This is
> one of those times.
>  
> There is a major crisis in our media taking place right now; it is
> getting almost no attention and unless we act very soon the consequences
> for our society could well be disastrous. And it will only take place
> because it is being done without any public awareness or participation;
> it goes directly against the very foundations of freedom of the press in
> the entirety of American history.
>  
> The U.S. Post Office is in the process of implementing a radical
> reformulation of its rates for magazines, such that smaller periodicals
> will be hit with a much much larger increase than the largest magazines.
>  
> Because the Post Office is a monopoly, and because magazines must use it,
> the postal rates always have been skewed to make it cheaper for smaller
> publications to get launched and to survive. The whole idea has been to
> use the postal rates to keep publishing as competitive and wide open as
> possible. This bedrock principle was put in place by James Madison and
> Thomas Jefferson. They considered it mandatory to create the press
> system, the Fourth Estate necessary for self-government.
> 
> It was postal policy that converted the free press clause in the First
> Amendment from an abstract principle into a living breathing reality for
> Americans. And it has served that role throughout our history.
> 
> What the Post Office is now proposing goes directly against 215 years of
> postal policy. The Post Office is in the process of implementing a
> radical reformulation of its mailing rates for magazines. Under the plan,
> smaller periodicals will be hit with a much larger increase than the big
> magazines, as much as 30 percent. Some of the largest circulation
> magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent.
>  
> The new rates, which go into effect on July 15, were developed with no
> public involvement or congressional oversight, and the increased costs
> could damage hundreds, even thousands, of smaller publications, possibly
> putting many out of business. This includes nearly every political
> journal in the nation. These are the magazines that often provide the
> most original journalism and analysis. These are the magazines that
> provide much of the content on Common Dreams. We desperately need them.
>  
> What the Post Office is planning to do now, in the dark of night, is
> implement a rate structure that gives the best prices to the biggest
> publishers, hence letting them lock in their market position and lessen
> the threat of any new competition. The new rates could make it almost
> impossible to launch a new magazine, unless it is spawned by a huge
> conglomerate.
>  
> Not surprisingly, the new scheme was drafted by Time Warner, the largest
> magazine publisher in the nation. All evidence available suggests the
> bureaucrats responsible have never considered the implications of their
> draconian reforms for small and independent publishers, or for citizens
> who depend upon a free press.
>  
> The corruption and sleaziness of this process is difficult to exaggerate.
> As one lawyer who works for a large magazine publisher admits, ?It takes
> a publishing company several hundred thousand dollars to even participate
> in these rate cases. Some large corporations spend millions to influence
> these rates.? Little guys, and the general public who depend upon these
> magazines, are not at the table when the deal is being made.
>  
> The genius of the postal rate structure over the past 215 years was that
> it did not favor a particular viewpoint; it simply made it easier for
> smaller magazines to be launched and to survive. That is why the
> publications opposing the secretive Post Office rate hikes cross the
> political spectrum. This is not a left-wing issue or a right-wing issue,
> it is a democracy issue. And it is about having competitive media markets
> that benefit all Americans. This reform will have disastrous effects for
> all small and mid-sized publications, be they on politics, music, sports
> or gardening.
>  
> This process was conducted with such little publicity and pitched only at
> the dominant players that we only learned about it a few weeks ago and it
> is very late in the game. But there is something you can do. Please go to
> www.stoppostalratehikes.com and sign the letter to the Postal Board
> protesting the new rate system and demanding a congressional hearing
> before any radical changes are made. The deadline for comments is April
> 23.
>  
> I know many of you are connected to publications that go through the
> mail, or libraries and bookstores that pay for subscriptions to magazines
> and periodicals. If you fall in these categories, it is imperative you
> get everyone connected to your magazine or operation to go to
> www.stoppostalratehikes.com.
>  
> We do not have a moment to lose. If everyone who reads this email
> responds at www.stoppostalratehikes.com, and then sends it along to their
> friends urging them to do the same, we can win. If there is one thing we
> have learned at Free Press over the past few years, it is that if enough
> people raise hell, we can force politicians to do the right thing. This
> is a time for serious hell-raising.
>  
> And to my friends from outside the United States, I apologize for
> cluttering your inbox. If you read this far, we can use your moral
> support.
>  
>> >From the bottom of my heart, thanks.
>  
> Bob
> 
> Robert W. McChesney
> www.mediaproblem.org
> www.freepress.net
> Department of Communication
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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