Many of our readers receiving the Fillmore County Journal outside of the immediate area of Fillmore County, Houston County, and Mower County have been noticing a tremendous delay in the delivery of this newspaper (and other newspapers, from what I’m hearing around the industry).
We know this because our office receives phone calls on a daily basis from upset subscribers living in greater Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Texas, Florida, Arizona and beyond.
They are upset because their newspapers are taking three to six weeks for delivery via USPS.
And, we haven’t changed a single step in our process. Every Friday morning, the newspapers are prepared for distribution. They are labeled and shipped out of our printing plant in Madelia, Minn., just like usual.
So, where is the problem?
Obviously, something is going on with the United States Postal Service that is out of our control.
We work closely with our local postmasters, and I have talked to many of them about what’s going on. Of course, they deliver mail and packages as quickly as they are received at our local post office locations.
Our problem is not at a local level.
At one time, I figured it must have been the result of the consolidation and attrition that the USPS administered over 10 years ago. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, “In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future.”
Yes, the Congressional Oversight Committee for the USPS administered a plan to fund the post-retirement health care benefits for future employees who hadn’t even been born yet. And, the USPS was required to fund 75 years worth of expense within 10 years. A highly unreasonable expectation for anyone who understands how to run a business.
As a result, the USPS closed an estimated 280 mail processing centers nationwide, along with reducing staff by 24,000 employees within a very short period of time. And more layoffs were expected, to the tune of 220,000 in between 2011 and 2015. It’s equivalent to hooking up a fire hose to a garden hose and trying to push the same volume of water through. Reducing to a garden hose won’t end well.
Some people might think that the USPS need for expense reduction has something to do with consumers utilizing online bill paying or the Internet in general. Not entirely true. Talk to our local postmasters and they’ll tell you how busy they are.
Something is going on with the USPS delivery and it will impact the timely delivery of everything, including newspaper subscriptions.
Gary says
Just a note once a usps employee reaches 6 yr’s of service they can’t be laid off as stated in the contract agreement,and that policy was still in effect when I retired in Dec 2012 but I can’t say if that policy is still in effect as of now,and from 2007-2016 the usps lost $62.4 billion dollars and $54.8 billion of that was due to the usps pre funding requirement
Louis E Lafreniere says
Um, huh? You’ve not read the news of Trump’s new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and his plans to basically destroy the USPS in time to cause chaos for the November elections? Google it. Although you’re correct about the hobbling that the USPS was already undergoing because of the absurd pension funding pressure, it’s DeJoy who has told the workers to stop trying to deliver the mail on time.
Every day our country becomes more of an Orwellian nightmare.
Jason Sethre says
Thanks Louis. This was a rhetorical question I posed. One of our readers actually answered this question the same week my commentary ran, so I didn’t need to go into detail.
Here’s a link to that Letter to the Editor: http://fillmorecountyjournal.com/letter-to-the-editor-letter-about-saving-our-post-office/
The issues facing the USPS start at the top.
Sharon Rustad says
I am so disgusted with your paper! Just not understanding buying out all the area hometown newspapers ! Only obits, council meeting and school board news! When citizens in Rushford wanted to start a local paper you threatened to sue! Is this not a free country? We had such insightful articles about our own neighborhoods and school before the Fillmore County Journal decided to monopolize what we want from a paper!!!
Jason Sethre says
Sharon,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns. There appears to be some misunderstandings.
As I’ve mentioned in a number of articles dating back to April 6, 2020, David Phillips wanted to retire. Phillips owned six newspapers in the area, including the Tri-County Record. Unfortunately, as he explained to me, the five subscription-based newspapers he owned were not sustainable. Subscriptions had been declining upwards of 15% per year every year for quite some time. When David Phillips closed all six newspapers on Friday, March 27, 2020, the total number of Tri-County Record subscriptions in Rushford was 378 and there are 1,438 households in Rushford — 26% of possible households.
The Chatfield News had 512 subscribers in Chatfield out of 2,014 households, which is 25% of possible households.
The Fillmore County News Leader had 144 subscribers in Preston out of 1,167 households, which is 12% of possible households.
The Spring Valley Tribune had 766 subscribers in Spring Valley out of 2,024 households, which is 38% of possible households.
The Spring Grove Herald had 319 subscribers in Spring Grove out of 1,028 households, which is 31% of possible households.
With declining circulation, advertisers were choosing to advertise in the Bluff Country Reader and/or Fillmore County Journal, because both newspapers reached all households.
This is becoming more common. Subscription-based newspapers are losing circulation and then losing advertising support. Advertising makes up more than 70% of a subscription-based newspapers revenue. It is a snowball effect.
If you look at the Post-Bulletin, they recently cut their delivery from six days a week to only two days a week. When I worked at the P-B from 1994 to 1999, the circulation was spiking to 50,000 on Saturdays. In their 2019 circulation audit, they were at 25,390 circulation. They have lost roughly half of their subscribers over the course of 20 years while the population of Rochester has increased from 85,806 (2000 U.S. Census) to 118,935 (est. 2019 U.S. Census). Subscription-based newspapers have some significant challenges.
When David Phillips wanted to retire, he was turning 65 in February 2020. He was looking at closing all of the subscription-based newspapers and merging them into the Bluff Country Reader to form one newspaper. But, at age 65, he didn’t want to continue in the newspaper business. Even if he went through with the merger of his own publications, it may take him another five years to find a buyer for his newspaper(s).
With recent health issues in his family, he wanted to retire more than ever. He shared this information in one of his last articles published his newspapers in March of 2020. Regardless of a merger with the Fillmore County Journal, David Phillips had already decided before the pandemic that the Tri-County Record, Spring Grove Herald, Chatfield News, Fillmore County News Leader, and Spring Valley Tribune were going to be discontinued. He was going to consolidate all of those publications into the Bluff Country Reader, because the subscription-based newspapers were not sustainable. But, he didn’t want to prolong his retirement, so he decided it was best to work with us on merging advertising and news content to consolidate to one publication for the area.
The reality is that when we originally accepted the idea of this merger, we expected our newspaper to be full of more content other than obituaries, city council and school meetings. We were looking forward to our sports section going from two pages to four (or more) pages. We were looking forward to Arts & Entertainment coverage. We were looking forward to introducing Agriculture News coverage for our area. We were looking forward to introducing historical news from our area. But, the pandemic has impacted so many things.
We have introduced an Arts & Entertainment page (just this week) and an Agriculture News page (also new this week). But, even so, with limitations. How many Arts & Entertainment-related stories are not happening because the pandemic has shutdown so many things.
We can’t even cover town celebrations. There are no grand marshals for parades, because town celebrations (and parades) are not supposed to happen.
We have also been fortunate to introduce historical columns presented by Dianne Ruud and Lee Epps. They are doing a fantastic job!
Still… no sports. And, that’s out of our control. We tried our best to provide some sports coverage by publishing the top high school athletes of the past decade per sport, just so there would be something interesting and different for our readers. Our very talented Sports Director Paul Trende coordinated that effort with the help of local coaches. And, we will have sports returning to the pages of the FCJ in the next several weeks as cross country is allowed to resume.
We are definitely operating in different times right now. There’s so much up in the air, and it impacts all of us in some way.
In spite of all that we face, I assure you that our team, which has grown significantly with the addition of many reporters and photographers from the Bluff Country Newspaper Group, cares tremendously about putting out the best possible newspaper every single week.
Regarding threatening to sue citizens in Rushford who wanted to start a local paper, I’m not sure what you are referring to. If you want to give me a phone call at our office, the number is 507-765-2151.
I’d be happy to hear your thoughts and ideas on how we can improve the newspaper for our readers.
Jason Sethre
Publisher
Fillmore County Journal