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Newspaper subscribers become frustrated they can't get their hometown paper delivered to them in a reasonable time, so they stop paying for it when the subscription comes due. Advertisers become frustrated when their promotions and marketing specials can't reach the marketplace soon enough.
• But it is not just newspapers. It is all businesses that rely on the mail for delivery of invoices, checks, correspondence and so much more. It's people who live so far from town that they must rely on the mail for delivery of their medical prescriptions. It's the delivery of farm parts and legal documents. The list goes on.
• Mail service always has been and remains a vital part of the infrastructure serving rural America. For that matter, our entire country.  Good, reliable mail service supports a strong economy and a connected, engaged society.
• Let's not degrade and destroy that network.  Instead, we should be working to protect and provide for a strong, reliable mail service that serves all of our country.
• If you won't do it (and your latest plant consolidation announcement suggests you won't),  then we call on Congress to step in and put a halt to it. Congress should freeze any further plant consolidations and closings until it can agree upon meaningful reform legislation for the Postal Service.
• Postal reform legislation has been percolating in Congress for some time now. Congress needs to act.
• Congress needs to remove the onerous, overly aggressive provisions that require the Postal Service to greatly accelerate set-asides for postal retirees' health benefits. Doing so would help the Postal Service's balance sheet and remove some of the pressures that lead to policies and actions that have hurt, not helped, your organization.
• Postal reform legislation is not a headlines-grabbing, popularity-poll issue that Congress rallies around. Nevertheless, Congress needs to act now, before your organization, Mr. Postmaster General, regresses into a shell of its former self from which it cannot recover.
• I thank you for your consideration.
• Sincerely,
• David Bordewyk, General Manager, South Dakota Newspaper Association
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