Count the weekly Marion County (Kansas) Record as one of the first victims of the U.S. Postal Service’s new “droop test” for periodicals. In a note to readers, Managing Editor Susan Berg said delivery of the paper to “will call” subscribers and of out-of-county mailed copies was delayed because of the new regulation.
“In the infinite wisdom of the national delivery service, they have decided that certain publications — including our weekly newspapers — must be a certain thickness to be fed through an automated machine,” Berg wrote. “Never mind that the majority of papers that we mail will never go to the large centers with this equipment. And never mind that free publications — publications that people didn’t order and probably don’t want — are not included in the ruling.”
The paper last week began quarter folding newspapers to go out of county to comply with the rule, which took effect Oct. 1. “Whenever we try something new there is bound to be a learning curve with a few hiccups along the way,” she wrote. “Oh and by the way, if we didn’t comply with the new ruling after Oct. 1, we would have had to pay significantly more postage — a cost increase we cannot afford.”
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