USPS Scanning System Fails To Track Newspapers

Some of the mystery around increasingly poor service for newspaper subscribers by the United States Postal Service has been clarified. The National Newspaper Association and News Media Alliance are highlighting one of the reasons for late and inconsistent delivery. They say the service performance measurement system operated by USPS does not keep track of newspapers.

NNA and NMA have filed joint comments before the Postal Regulatory Commission in a docket set up by USPS to change the way it provides its public reports for on-time service performance. Because new delivery standards go into effect in October, USPS plans to provide new categories of information for First-Class mail delivery.

NNA and NMA reminded the committee that the Postal Service relies upon scans from automated sorting machines to compile its data on where mail is and how reliably it is delivered. But because newspapers are not generally sorted by automated sorting machines in mail plants, newspaper mail is not being scanned.

USPS has improved delivery of periodicals since fall of 2020, when the combination of missing workers sheltering from COVID and a surge in package volume created major delays throughout the system. A recent service report says 79 percent of periodicals were delivered on time, a marginal improvement over 2019. The trouble is the numbers do not include newspapers.

The lack of data is a major flaw, say newspaper groups, in failing to give the public meaningful information on why they may be experiencing delivery problems.

To read NNA and NMA comments on USPS scanning procedures, visit nna.org/ pub/doc/Comments-of-NNAand- NMA-newspaper-delivery. pdf.