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WWW. ANANEWS.COM

MARCH 2009

Wisdom of early Arizona newspaper publishers can help the industry survive through its darkest days Kevin R. Kemper University of Arizona

TUBAC—Newspapers don’t have to die. Just ask early publishers of Arizona newspapers. The first newspapers in Arizona were businesses, with the intent to make a profit, while providing a public service to citizens. The publishers knew they had to offer a valuable product that people would purchase and use, or they would be out of business. On March 7, I went to a sesquicentennial celebration in Tubac for The Weekly Arizonian, first published on March 3, 1859, by Edward Cross. Elizabeth and Jim Pagels of Tucson recreated the publishing of that first newspaper. In the top left corner of the left column, the first words published under the masthead of that first issue of an Arizona newspaper said: “THE ARIZONIAN: A WEEKLY PAPER. DEVOTED TO THE GENERAL INTERESTS OF ARIZONA.” First, the newspaper industry will survive when it is “devoted to the general interests of Arizona.” This is The press that printed the first issue of the Weekly Arizonian still continued on page 3 functions, and is located in Tubac’s Presidio Park.

Postage rate increase will adversely affect newspapers; Contact your legislators now On Feb. 10, the U.S. Postal Service proposed new rates which impose a postage rate increase greater than the rate of inflation on newspapers, with some rates rising as much as 11 percent. The Postal Service also proposed a new rate incentive program that would reward national and local saturation advertising mailers with a 4 cent / per piece discount. While the Postal Regulatory Commission approved the new rates on Mar. 16, it said that it did not have enough information in its expedited review of the rates to determine if the rates violated the law under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The Newspaper Association of

America is exploring options, but a regulatory remedy may not present itself for some time. These new rates will go into effect on May 11, 2009. The new rates systematically discriminate against the High Density rates used by newspaper TMC programs and favor newspapers’ saturation mail competitors. For example, the per piece rate increase for Standard High Density flats is 5.4 percent while the increase for Saturation is 1.4 percent. The rate differential is much more pronounced for the heavier pieces that newspapers typically mail, with the High Density pound rates increasing by as much as 11 percent more

than the Saturation pound rate. To illustrate the wide gap that has developed between newspapers’ rates and the rates of our saturation mail competitors: a Standard A carrier route Saturation 5-ounce package will cost $179.25 per thousand to mail at the local post office. The identical package going at High Density rates will cost $209.75 or 17 percent more. These unreasonable rates will place newspapers at a substantial competitive disadvantage to our national and local saturation advertising mail competitors. A government enterprise should not interfere with the competition for advertiscontinued on page 2


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