Crack appears in U.S. magazine common front on postal increases

Consumer magazine publishers in the U.S., particularly the big ones, and small and medium-sized publishers, particularly trade publishers, are a wee bit testy with each other this week in their submissions to the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission about proposed mailing rate increases, according to a story in Folio:

Unlike in Canada, where there is a more-or-less united front of consumer and trade magazine publishers when negotiating with Canada Post, American Business Media (ABM), representing trade publishers, says proposals contained in briefs by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) and Time Inc. will potentially cost publishers more the smaller their circulation is.

ABM favours a proposal made by the U.S. Postal Service that would see a system-wide increase of 8.4% and says that the MPA or Time proposals seek greater incentives for larger titles that co-mail and co-palletize, incentives that won't be available to many smaller publishers and will simply make an over-burdened system even worse.

Under Time's proposal, says David Straus, postal counsel for the ABM, small publishers will face an average increase of 18.38 per cent, while large publishers would face 9.94%. Under MPA's proposal, he said, the comparable rates would be 16.48% and 9.49%.

Of course, MPA and Time saw it entirely differently and argued that they were simply trying to reward efficiency. An MPA spokesperson said that they had built in safeguards to protect small publishers, safeguards that apparently don't reassure their trade publishing cousins. For details, read the rest of the longish story.