Ask your Congress members to stop postal rate increases

Dear reader, The United State Postal Service recently announced another 10% increase in their rates effective July 14, 2024.

Since 2021, there have been five previous rate increases; this is the sixth. This announcement coincides with severe deterioration in the USPS’s performance; simply put, the mail is often late. These rate increases affect individuals sending mail, as well as newspapers delivering the news. The rate increases have grown to a crisis. Your voice is needed to ask Congress to place a moratorium on any rate increases, effective immediately.

Mail is a vital service to all Americans and provides information that cannot be transmitted digitally. The USPS’s price increases have been so aggressive that mail volume is declining, which creates a death spiral: Each rate increase reduces the mail volume, making another rate increase necessary, leading to still more volume declines.

Consider the following: -- First-Class Mail stamps – 24% increase since 2022; another 7.8% increase scheduled for July 14, 2024.

-- Periodical mail (paid newspapers) – Periodical postage increase for July 2024 will be about 5-7% increase since January 2024.

-- EDDM (free newspapers) – 11% increase for community newspapers; the rate increase means newspapers are paying about 33% more for postage than three years ago.

Many newspapers rely on mail to deliver local news to big, medium-sized and small communities alike. We depend on the post office and need it to succeed, but not at the cost of our ability to continue serving our readers.

For easy reference, the following is contact information for your Wisconsin U.S. Senate and Congressional representatives. Please call your representative or leave a message on their constituent website. Ask them to put an immediate stop to postal rate increases that affect all of us. This action will help stabilize local news in your and our communities and preserve the stewardship that the print medium has had in helping our communities to stay strong.

Contact your Congress members: -- 7th District: Tom Tiffany (R) - (202) 225-3365 -- Senator Tammy Baldwin - (608) 2645338 -- Senator Ron Johnson - (202) 224-5653 Your support is greatly appreciated.

Kris O’Leary Publisher, TRG