I don't really understand
why so many people dislike the United States Postal Service. I've
always liked the Post Office and I'm not alone.
When I was a kid I collected stamps and learned more about American history and geography by gluing commemorative stamps into my album than I would have otherwise learned until high school.
When I was a kid I collected stamps and learned more about American history and geography by gluing commemorative stamps into my album than I would have otherwise learned until high school.
And I remember that Ben
Franklin (the patron saint of printers) was appointed
postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737 at the age of thirty. His
office was so efficient it actually ran at a profit which he reported
to the British Postmaster General.
And that early American
leaders envisioned the role of postal delivery as a way to unify the
colonies and a year before the
Constitution was signed established the Second Continental
Congress named
a Postmaster General to operate out of Philadelphia and establish
other post offices “from Falmouth in New England to Savannah in
Georgia” as seemed necessary.
Sure enough, postal
service expanded with the country, but some say the
country expanded with the postal service. Transporting goods via
the post office proved so effective that 80,000 bricks needed to
build a bank in a secluded Utah city were
sent Parcel Post, 49 pounds at a time.
As a printer it's assumed
that I have an obligation to encourage the government to continue to
subsidize bulk (aka junk) mail by providing extremely low rates. As
you can see, it's no secret that low bulk mail rates support
increases in print tonnage. Unfortunately (for printers) the Postal
Regulatory Commission has
raised postage rates citing low but persistent inflation.
But while I was reading
the article linked above, one phrase stuck out; “Due to a
regulation, the USPS cannot base an exigent increase on the
continuing effects of electronic diversion.” Even as Congress deals
with conservatives who want to privatize mail delivery, it has also
effectively stacked the deck against the US Post Office only to crow
about its inherent inefficiency when the inevitable happens and
service suffers as rates increase.
The postal service has
historically
been a cash cow for Congress to raid, yet Congress has hobbled it
by asking it to behave as a profitable corporation. But it has
granted it no control over its pricing or services and is subject to
the whiff of the lobbyists' cigar smoke at every turn.
Even in Canada, which
proudly calls its postal service Canada Post Corporation because it
has the ability to sell stock in itself, is overseen
by Parliament and Cabinet and is also crushed by the bureaucracy
governing it, and so Canada
has just announced it will discontinue door-to-door mail delivery
in favor of centralized (down the block, 'round the corner)
delivery.
So the great seers of the
Cato Institute (motto:Millard Fillmore was a great President) gravely
pronounced the post
office a doomed relic nearly thirty years ago that needed to be
privatized; which makes you wonder who would want to enter a “doomed”
industry anyway, now or then?
More likely, the
Institute sees what the
editors of Forbes see: the post office still controls the gateway
to putting printed products on your tables and desks and that direct
mail in the hands of marketers kicks the crap out of digital
advertising splashes we are all so bored with.
The short-comings
of the private carriers over the holidays has not produced any
cries to “federalize” their services so presumably, incompetence
can be tolerated in the private sector.
If the drum beat to
privatize postal service continues in America, I think there should
be two stipulations; the independent company must deliver mail on a
timely basis to every citizen of every state and Congress gets to set
the rates.
I believe in a level
playing field.
But
Does He Get Royalties?
A
19 year old William Powell wrote a book, The
Anarchist Cookbook, that has become the de
facto guide for mayhem and violence over the past four decades. He
has openly asked that the publisher, Delta Press, allow
the book to go out of print, but with 2+ million copies sold, the
publisher has declined. There's no mention if Powell continues to
profit from his writing.
Textbooks
via Drone
While
Amazon plans on using drones for 30 minute deliveries in the future,
Australian textbook rental company Zookal
will be “up and running" next fall.
Poland
Tries to Ensure Profits
Alarmed
at the decrease in book sales and the shrinking number of book
publishers in Poland, its legislature has passed a law stipulating
that
books must be sold at their cover price for the first year and a half
of
publication. Does Amazon have to abide by this?
Calling
for Writers of a Certain Age
AARP
and Huff/Post50
are looking for well told memoirs in a writing contest that offers
$5,000 and extensive publication to the story awarded first place.
Details are here.
Future
Print
Frank
Romano may be the most respected analyst/ commentator from the world
of print. Here, Frank takes a look at “The
Ghost of Printing Yet To Come”
with a wink and a laugh.
New
Life for Travel Guides?
As
we reported
last April,
the future seemed bleak for stalwart travel publishers Frommers and
Lonely Planet as they were jettisoned by their new owners just months
after their acquisition.Lonely Planet has
been resold (at a 50% loss to the sellers) to NC2 Media,
while Frommers has been rescued
by its former owners,
the Frommer family, and rebranded as “Frommers Media”.
More
on Metadata
Thanks
to Edward
Snowden and the NSA intelligence snooping he revealed
I think we all have a better sense of what metadata is. BISG
has just released an
updated version of Best Practices for Metadata
report, available here
at no charge. Makes me wonder; do any companies opt for just good
enough practices?
B&N
Needs to Compete on Price
Could
B&N's path to survival begin by adopting a price-match
program similar to the one that sparked Best Buy's resurgence?
Reading
Books for Your Mental Health
I've
always believed there were myriad benefits enjoyed by reading a book.
Now, Book
Prescription believes that bibliotherapy
can help to combat depression.
Apple
Anti-Trust Monitoring
Last
summer a federal judge appointed a monitor to scrutinize
Apple's alleged collusion
with five publishers to set ebook pricing. Apple has asked for a new
monitor, claiming the current one is too aggressive.
Most
Expensive Book in the World
Although
only
three copies have been sold in the past 130
years, each time a Bay
Psalm
book, believed to be the first title printed in America, changes
hands it sets a new record for rare book pricing. The latest sale,
one of eleven surviving copies, set
the new record at $14.2 million.
Coincidence?
November's
reminiscence about what
a great bookstore New York City's The Strand is,
was published just prior to the Strand posting its
best Christmas sales in its 86 years history.
You're welcome.
Books
go Upscale
As
a reaction to the bare-bones experience of reading ebooks, publishers
are finding ways to enhance the inherent value of their printed
books. We work with some publishers who do this by simply making the
highest quality book possible in which to present their content.
North
Carolina Censorship
In
a bid to maintain its historic support of ignorance, a county in
North Carolina wants to ban Alice Walker's The
Color Purple.
Doonesbury
describes the state. Alarmingly, there have been reports that
censorship
efforts are increasing across the country.
Final
Thought
A
book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the
way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors. Henry
Ward Beecher
