VISIT US AT WWW.TCNATODAY.COM Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 698.4096 (888)450-8329 fax 1 TCNAToday TCNA offers connections—connections to information, trends, training and direct revenue opportunities. Board of Directors e leadership of TCNA is in good hands. e board of directors, director, and assistant are listed with contact information. Page 3 Graphics Series Ellen Hanrahan cleans out her electronic files and conducts an Ad Clinic at the same time. Some ideas never go out of style. Page 5 Work Positively Dr. Joey Faucee teaches us how we can remain positive in a world full of tragedy, personal and otherwise. Page 6 Use of Humor in Advertising Bob Berting, Mr. Community Paper, shows us some prey clever ways to use humor in advertising. Page 3 USPS Update Donna Hanbery of the Saturation Mailers Coalition keeps us informed regarding legislation and rules governing the United States Postal Service. ose rules will change the way you do business. Page 8 by Joe Bonura, CSP Are you afraid to lose, or are you de- termined to win? I heard this recently, and it really made me think. Fear is a motivating factor, and so is determina- tion. One is positive, and the other is negative. YOUR CHOICE In sales, you make choices every day, and those choices will determine whether you will succeed or fail in your efforts. Determined to Win WHERE ARE YOU GOING? Each choice must be preceded by a desired outcome. The outcome or goal is what you want to accomplish. The goal or outcome is a magnet that pulls you toward a predetermined destina- tion. DRIFTING ALONG Without the magnet, you drift along waiting for life to happen, rather than making life happen. If you decide to go to the supermarket, you see the supermarket in your subconscious be- SERVING THE COMMUNITY MEDIA OF TEXAS AUGUST 2014 continued on page 2 fore you begin driving. WHY AM I HERE If you have been there before, your mind guides you to the market, turn by turn, until you are in the parking lot. You must also know why you are going to the market. Either you will have a list or an idea of needed sup- plies before you get out of the car. DRY CEREAL Now you can be motivated to go to An Advertising Lesson John Foust remembers how a billboard seen many years ago is a good blueprint for effective advertising Page 2
Transcript
V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 698.4096 (888)450-8329 fax 1
TCNATodayTCNA offers connections—connections to information, trends, training and direct revenue opportunities.
Board of DirectorsThe leadership of TCNA is in good hands. The board of directors, director, and assistant are listed with contact information.
Page 3
Graphics Series Ellen Hanrahan cleans out her electronic files and conducts an Ad Clinic at the same time. Some ideas never go out of style.
Page 5
Work PositivelyDr. Joey Faucette teaches us how we can remain positive in a world full of tragedy, personal and otherwise.
Page 6
Use of Humor in AdvertisingBob Berting , Mr. Community Paper, shows us some pretty clever ways to use humor in advertising.
Page 3
USPS UpdateDonna Hanbery of the Saturation Mailers Coalition keeps us informed regarding legislation and rules governing the United States Postal Service. Those rules will change the way you do business.
Page 8
by Joe Bonura, CSP
Are you afraid to lose, or are you de-termined to win? I heard this recently, and it really made me think. Fear is a motivating factor, and so is determina-tion. One is positive, and the other is negative.
YOUR CHOICEIn sales, you make choices every day, and those choices will determine whether you will succeed or fail in your efforts.
Determined to Win
WHERE ARE YOU GOING?Each choice must be preceded by a desired outcome. The outcome or goal is what you want to accomplish. The goal or outcome is a magnet that pulls you toward a predetermined destina-tion.
DRIFTING ALONGWithout the magnet, you drift along waiting for life to happen, rather than making life happen. If you decide to go to the supermarket, you see the supermarket in your subconscious be-
SERVING THE COMMUNITY MEDIA OF TEXAS AUGUST 2014
continued on page 2
fore you begin driving.
WHY AM I HEREIf you have been there before, your mind guides you to the market, turn by turn, until you are in the parking lot. You must also know why you are going to the market. Either you will have a list or an idea of needed sup-plies before you get out of the car.
DRY CEREALNow you can be motivated to go to
An Advertising LessonJohn Foust remembers how a billboard seen many years ago is a good blueprint for effective advertising
Page 2
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the market out of fear or determina-tion: Fear that you won’t have milk for cereal in the morning, or determina-tion that you will have milk for cereal in the morning.
WHAT IS YOUR HOT BUTTON?What motivates you to make a sales call? Is it fear, or is it determination to succeed? Sales people that use fear to motivate themselves are not always as successful as those who use determi-nation as a motivation.
LESS STRESSWhy? Because fear creates stress, and stress always takes a toll on productiv-ity. Determination, on the other hand, creates a sense of accomplishment and a can-do attitude.
SUPER BOWLINGYou see this principle at work in com-petitive sports all the time. In this year’s Super Bowl, the New England Patriots were afraid to lose. Their per-formance did not match their rhetoric. They had a chance to be the second team in NFL history to have an unde-
continued from page 1 feated season. You could see and feel their fear of losing.
THE JOLLY BLUE GIANTSThe New York Giants had nothing to lose and everything to gain. The Gi-ants were determined to win, and they became Super Bowl champions. They visualized the outcome before they en-tered the field. Their triumphant des-tiny was predetermined by their posi-tive attitude.
NOT TOO LATEYou sell from the fear standpoint when you don’t make the calls that are re-quired to make monthly quotas. The game (or month) is almost over, and you failed to see the outcome in ad-vance.
STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVEDetermination keeps a sales person ahead of the curve. If you are selling from a base of determination, you plan your results in advance, and you know that you will accomplish your goals at the end of the month.
DO IT DAILYYou must renew your determination every day, or you will be selling be-cause of fear of failure, instead of plea-sure of accomplishment. Ask yourself - where am I now, and where do I want to be at the end of the month?
An Advertising LessonIn Tombstone, ArizonaBy John Foust, Raleigh, NC
One of the most memorable ads I’ve seen was a billboard on Highway 80 north of Tombstone. I was in southern Arizona on business and had some free time to make a side trip to the town where the Earp brothers and Doc Hol-liday had their famous gunfight in 1881 with the group known as the “Cowboys” at the OK Corral.
The billboard promoted the Tomb-
stone Motel with the simple line, “Rest in peace.”
That’s a phrase which wouldn’t work for any other business with any other name in any other town. But for a mo-tel in an Old West town named Tomb-stone – with the main attraction being the site of a gunfight which has been the subject of movies and books – the line seemed entirely appropriate.
I didn’t spend the night in Tombstone
and I’ve never met anyone who has stayed at the Tombstone Motel, so I can’t speak for that establishment. All I know is that – years after the trip – I still remember that billboard. I men-tion it here, because it illustrates some important principles of advertising:
continued on page 7
Free PapersWorking For You
In a letter to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
“No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.”
Your free community paper works hard each issue to provide you with great value. That value comes to you, our readers, at no cost. To some, freedom of the press means freedom from interference from others. We believe freedom of the press means that connection to our community should not cost the reader. You should not have to pay to be connected to or be a part of this region. That’s why we’re free.
Let freedom ring.
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DirectorDonna Stanley 512-259-4449
PublisherHill Country
News
DirectorRick Wamre 214-560-4212
PresidentAdvocate
Media
PresidentKathleen Holton (817) 594-7447
EditorWeatherford
Democrat
DirectorNicole Morris 361-668-6397
Publisher/EditorReal Hometown
Media
DirectorDennis Skinner 903-794-0996
PublisherAmerican
Classifieds/Texarkana
Vice PresidentLance Winter 817-594-9902
Publisher/EditorWeatherford Star-Telegram
Past PresidentDennis Wade 512-994-0482
PresidentGranite
Publications
TreasurerAmber Weems 830-693-7152
PublisherVictory
Publishing
Executive Director
Douglas FryTCNA Office
Columbia, TN931-223-5708
SecretaryJonathan McElvy
713-686-8494Publisher
The Leader News
LeadershipNot only is the board of directors made up of some of the sharpest and most dedicated media minds in Texas, they also take time from their very busy schedules to make decisions that will help your and your business.
By Bob Berting, Berting Communica-tions
Many ad campaigns are developed with provocative ad headlines.
Readers gravitate to that type of ad-vertising every week the ad is run because they are intrigued by this approach and want to see what
will happen in the next ad. This is a powerful and compelling way to keep readers coming back to their ads.
Two good examples of humorous ads are as follows:
A restaurant ad says “ If you think fast food isn’t that greasy, set your continued on page 4
The Use of Humor: The Big Ad Idea
next burger and fries here”. In the ad is an outline of a hamburg-er and a bag of French fries. A Mexican restau-rant ad copy says “ Mex-ican food so authentic you’ll think twice before drinking the water.”
THE BIG IDEA—TWO GOOD EXAMPLES:
A mom and pop pizza operation with 4 stores is doing well until Dominoes Pizza moves in town. Dominoes runs a full page in the
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yellow pages in color and is kill-ing the mom and pop operation. Next year, right before the yellow pages hit with another Dominoes full page, the mom and pop opera-tion run a campaign which says “ Bring us the Dominoes ad in the yellow pages and we’ll give you two for one pizza,” You couldn’t find a Dominoes ad anywhere in town.
The second story is about the beau-ty shop giving 30.00 haircuts. They are proud of their haircuts and are doing well. Suddenly Fantastic Sams moves in across the street and puts up a billboards—blue with yellow letters “ We do $6.00 hair-
cuts”. Not to be outdone, the beau-ty shop puts up a billboard—blue with yellow letters “ We FIX $6.00 haircuts!”
There is no limit to the humor and clever ideas that can be used in advertising. Many times the en-tire perception of a business can be based on their humorous approach.
Bob Berting is a professional speaker, newspaper sales trainer, and publisher marketing consultant who has con-ducted over 1500 live seminars, tele-seminars, and webinars for newspaper sales staffs, their customers, print me-dia associations and trade associations in the US and Canada.
Danger Signs of Marketing Problemscontinued from page 3
Contact Bob at 800-536-5408 or [email protected]. He is locat-ed at 6330 Woburn Drive, India-napolis, IN 46250.
Free PapersWorking For You
This free community paper is a vital force in our community. We live here, we work here, our kids attend school here, we shop here, and we love it here. Because we feel so connected, we want everyone to feel the same way. That’s why we offer the best our community has to offer each issue. We invite you to strengthen our community by shopping locally, being involved, and supporting each other. We do.
Insert Your Logo Here
Your free press strengthens our community. Not by being separate from it, but by being part of it.
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I welcome your input and suggestions. A former art teacher, I entered the free paper publishing business in the early 80s. I write for IFPA, Community Papers of Michigan, and am still learning. E-mail: [email protected]
Ad ClinicMY COMPUTER IS GETTING A LITTLE BIT CLUTTERED. OH, I STILL HAVE PLENTY OF SPACE, BUT THERE ARE FILES THAT I WILL NEVER TOUCH AGAIN AND SOME THAT MAY NEED JUST A LITTLE BIT OF WORK, SO I WILL SEND THEM TO THE…
Final thoughts…The large headline typeface at the beginning of this column is called KG Second Chances Sketch
Regula r — just trying some new fonts to see how
Enjoy the rest of the summer!
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area). There is no selling going on here and leaves a large white whole in the middle of the ad—not the best use of the space in this instance.
Ad improvementsYour advertising should reflect your business. In this case, Roder Carpentry does home improve-ments and yet his ad is hard to follow and not the least bit organized. Ad #3 below shows a total revamping of the ad. A new graphic was added and all the perti-nent information regarding the types of jobs and projects he’s worked on are closer together and easier to find. The headline used in all ads, by the way, is TFAvian (Treacyfaces); with the text in Agenda from Font Bureau. The greater use of the headline type required a little bit stronger border; the rounded corners helped emphasize the curve and sweep of the headline type. Quite a difference in the approach! If that is a little too radical, I tried a more sub-dued, less drastic approach in Ad #4. I retained the original graphic but made it larger to direct the reader’s eye to the name of the business. While I cut back on the use of the headline type-face, I did keep the services provided and jobs performed in a more prominent place and close
I have been trying to clean up my electronic files, so I am going through my older articles to either toss, revamp or update and this one, from an IFPA article from 2001, caught my eye. The information is still good, but since I have committed to InDesign and am planning on compiling my articles into a coherent, useful format (wish me luck on that!), I need to do a lot of salvage work. I started using QuarkXPress so hopefully I can get them to open in InDesign. Programs change, good design stays relevant!
Two by twoBelow you see a 2 column by 2 inch business builder ad. Ad # 1 is pretty close to the origi-nal…which is the way that the customer wanted to keep the ad. The ad as it stands, however, becomes difficult to read. The types of jobs that he does, Home Improvements, Finish Carpentry and Home Additions are buried below the address. The specific projects that he works on, Siding, Decks, Garages, etc. are listed on the left side of the ad and separate from the types of jobs. Try to keep similar information together, it’s easier for the reader to retain the info. Ad #2 below shows the “buried’ information as well as the “trapped” white space (the lighter
together. Without talking to the customer, it is difficult to know what they are thinking, or how much liberty I can take with the information that they give us. Unfortunately the ad that we ran was Ad # 1. These small ads are the kind that fill our paper. We don’t always have the opportunity to help the advertiser make the most effective use of their space and ad dollars… sigh.
InDesign Secrets.comI have added another “burst” style to my collec-tion and it couldn’t be easier to create! It simply involves using a “dotted” stroke on a circle. Go to InDesignSecrets.com to get the full information, because you need to create a new stroke. I tried using the standard stroke styles but had no luck. However, creating a new “dotted” stroke made the difference andwas very easy.
Don RoderPO Box 123
555 East Main Street Cambelltown, WI 53000 Phone/fax 920-555-5555
This is called “trapping the white space.” See example #1. The type of carpentry work that he does is lost below the address — it needs to be more prominent so move it under his name.
Customize your bursts. I was able to scale the circles… to a certain extent anyway… to get circles of varying sizes!
I created two new stroke
styles to make these samples.
… and I’m surethere is a similar wayto do this in QuarkXPress. There are a lot of free interesting shortcuts, techniques and basic info about InDesign on this site, so go visit!
they “look.” I think it might be time for a change in some of the text. Next time some-thing “cool” … at least I think it is. You know how I’ve talked about the Mighty Deals web-site, anyway, last month they had a special ($5!) on a Photoshop plug-in. I still need to see what it can do, but so far I’m hooked. Next month I’ll have examples for you, so stay tuned…
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Work Positive
3 STRATEGIES TO WORK POSITIVE IN A TRAGEDY
Dr. Joey Faucette
As I left our home and drove around the mountain, fog enveloped me quickly. Unexpectedly. There was no sign of fog when I pulled out of our garage.
The business environment changes that quickly, also, particularly with what influences our customers’ and clients’ lives.
For example, the shooting down of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine suddenly dominates our conversa-tions, news media, buying habits, and prayers. It fogs our perception.
So how do you do business when trag-edy fogs over your business?
Here are 3 Strategies to Work Positive in a Tragedy.
HEADLIGHTS ONI turned on my headlights that foggy morning to see and be seen, but not on bright as that blinds me from the reflection back.
Since the tragedy is on your custom-ers’ minds, be seen as acknowledg-ing it. Speak into their conversations. Organize an after-hours prayer vigil.
Invite them to join you in giving to a foundation to provide relief. As you do business out of this “Receive” core practice, you evidence more of your Work Positive lifestyle.
Avoid the “bright lights”—“I’m not go-ing to fly”—as they reflect back and heighten anxiety. Your conversation is a step-down transformer, giving cli-ents an activity that helps.
SLOW DOWNI slowed down my car that foggy morning to lengthen my reaction time to other vehicles…and give them more time, too.
For the weeks following a tragedy like the downing of the Malaysia airliner over the Ukraine, you may notice your customers slowing down their buy-ing decisions. Of course, your cash flow needs feeding and it will as you continue to Work Positive. For now, understanding your business’ long-term relationships with clients is para-mount. Urgency building, money back guarantees, and other buying enhanc-ing benefits are still in place so work them.
Just know that when tragedy domi-nates our conversations, our buying decision process slows down. Fear trickles in. Life-and-death issues move upfront. Be patient and understanding with your customers. Slow down for now.
STAY OFF THE ROADPerhaps I should have checked the lo-cal news that foggy morning to stay off of the road for a bit until it cleared. But I avoid media news in the mornings.
I hope as a Work Positive business per-son you stay off the road of morning
media news. It is by design a negative influence. If it bleeds, it leads.
Limit your media exposure especially in times of tragedy. Be informed, yet know that your business succeeds as you focus on the positive and filter out the negative. Your negative filter clogs quickly in a 24/7 news cycle of repeti-tive sound bites and video clips of the same scene. Access “pull media” like websites and exclude “push media” like TV/radio. Exercise your editorial license as a consumer of information. Stay off the road until it clears.
Tragedies like the downing of the Ma-laysia airliner over the Ukraine affect us all. Use these 3 strategies to build your customer relationships while the fog clears so you Work Positive in this negative world.
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Nega-tive World (Entrepreneur Press), Work Positive coach, & speaker who helps business professionals increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the of-fice earlier to do what they love with those they love. Discover more at www.Listen-toLife.org.
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1. BILLBOARDS CAN TEACH US A LOT ABOUT ADVERTISING.
Newspaper and billboard advertising face the same basic challenge of being readable and attracting attention at a glance. As you drive, you have a few seconds to read a roadside sign in its entirety. And as you turn the pages of a newspaper or scan a web site, you have only a few seconds to decide if a particular ad is worth further reading.
If a message doesn’t communicate at a glance, it will miss the mark.
2. THE BEST ADS ARE TARGETED.Tombstone is a tourism destination. It’s a safe guess that a large number of out-of-towners traveling to Tombstone are planning on visiting the OK Cor-ral, the Boot Hill cemetery and various buildings which have been preserved as they were when Wyatt Earp was Marshall.
It’s smart to appeal to those travelers’ knowledge of what made Tombstone famous. And it’s smart to place the sign on the road leading into town.
3. UNIQUENESS IS AN ADVANTAGE.
In the environment of Tombstone, Ari-zona, “rest in peace” does not appear offensive at all. Sure, it’s a little corny. But the slogan is not likely to gener-ate outrage among consumers. On the other hand, can you imagine “rest in peace” in an ad campaign for Hilton or Marriott?
I think it’s safe to say the Tombstone Motel adopted a slogan that was uniquely theirs.
4. THE BEST MESSAGES ARE SIMPLE.
Obviously, “rest in peace” had a dou-ble meaning. While acknowledging the town’s well-known background, it suggested a reason to stay at the Tomb-stone Motel. With the combination of the headline and the motel’s logo,
that simple sign communicated: (1) a clearly stated consumer benefit (rest), (2) a connection to history (the Old West), (3) the advertiser, and (4) the location (which was part of the adver-tiser’s name).
All of that was communicated in just a few words. In a few seconds.
That’s a worthy objective for all adver-
tisers.
(c) Copyright 2014 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
John Foust has conducted training programs for thousands of newspaper advertising professionals. Many ad de-partments are using his training videos to save time and get quick results from in-house training. Email for informa-tion: [email protected]
Free PapersWorking For You
New technologies change many things. But not everything. You may tweet, blog, surf, shop, or search online but you continue to read your free community paper. You just proved it.
Readership of free community papers is now higher than paid daily papers and continues to grow. Rather than being replaced by “instant” media, your local free community paper has become an important part of our neighborhood.
The reason, which sometimes is not heard
because of all the noise about the Internet, is pretty obvious: your free community paper does what the Internet doesn’t. We promote connections at a local level. Free papers join readers and advertisers in ways digital media don’t.
In fact, the local content and power of your free paper makes advertising even more effective. We are the number one medium for driving purchases. That’s important in every product category.
Including potatoes.
Will the Internet kill your free community paper?Did instant potatoes kill potatoes?
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continued on page 9
USPS UpdateA MODEST PROPOSAL: A PLEA
FOR PREDICTABILITYIn its decision on the exigency case, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) told the Postal Service it could not have a permanent 4.3% exigency increase in rates. It approved a 4.3% limited surcharge to last only as long as it took for the Postal Service to recoup the amount of revenue and contribu-tion the PRC found the Postal Service had shown was due to the great reces-sion. In its order, the PRC directed the Postal Service to file a report after the decision that would advise mailers, and the industry, on the Postal Ser-vice plans to eliminate or phase out the surcharge when the exigent sur-charge revenues had been recouped. The reasons for the PRC order seemed evident. Businesses need to plan. For mailers that depend upon the Postal Service’s prices or businesses - like printing, production, shipping and software providers that support mail-ers and shippers - information about rates, discounts, rules and predict-ability concerning those costs and requirements is needed to plan every-thing from work force needs, promo-tions, customer pricing, products and services, and business budgeting.
At first the Postal Service refused to submit the required plan. When the PRC ordered it to submit a plan, it submitted a document explaining its many excuses for not being able to submit a plan and proposal at this time, but listed the options its Board of Governors could consider “at the appropriate time.”
With respect, we can chide the Postal Service for acting “PO’d” that it lost the case to begin with; and that it is being
ordered around by the PRC to develop a plan and share it before the USPS is good and ready. Regrettably, the USPS decided to share its frustration, and its problems with the lack of predict-ability, with all of the stakeholders and customers that depend upon the Post-al Service.
The Postal Service PRC “plan” laid out a list of options and variables, but re-fused to even “inkle” a preference.
The Postal Service began by pointing out the general economic uncertainty and things that were out of its control, speculative, and difficult to predict. Changes in the economy, mail mix and volumes, and even things that the Postal Service could, arguably, control – like the impact its next CPI rate ad-justment could have on mail volumes.
THE POSTAL SERVICE WROTE:At present, the next annual price ad-justment under the Postal Service’s schedule of regular rate changes would occur in January 2015. If that happens, it might be expected that volumes would decline as the result of any increase in prices, thereby result-ing in the exigent surcharge being in place for a somewhat longer period of time.
After lamenting the many variables that impacted its business, the Postal Service gave some of the options it could consider when the time arose. These options include:
Giving a notice that it will rescind the surcharge shortly before the USPS be-lieves it has generated the $3.2 billion in revenue allowed under the PRC or-der;
Changing the schedule of CPI increas-es to delay future rate adjustments to
coincide with the rescission of the sur-charge;
If inflation were less than 4.3%, the Postal Service could use its pricing au-thority to fold in the exigent surcharge for some products, while adjusting (potentially lowering) the price of oth-er products to come out at the cap; or Some combination of the above.
The PRC has invited comments on the Postal Service’s submission. I thought I would share my comments with my members and readers.
The Postal Service wants the freedom and flexibility to run like a business. I have a suggestion about how to act like a business. The Postal Service is in the customer service business. Al-though it has monopoly protection and exclusive access to every busi-ness and consumer mailbox in the United States, its ultimate survival will depend upon businesses using and trusting the Postal Service for adver-tising, shipping, and other commer-cial communications and transactions. Although consumers and the Ameri-can public enjoy the convenience and the universal service provided by the USPS, it is ultimately underwritten by business mailers. Congress has shown little interest in helping the Postal Ser-vice survive or become sustainable. If business mailers leave the Postal Service for other media or distribu-tion channels, Congress and taxpayers are unlikely to step up to provide the funding and resources needed to help the Postal Service make ends meet.
If the Postal Service wants more reve-nue and business from its customers, it should start acting like other customer service businesses. In short, stop tell-
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ing us about all of your problems and make some commitments and prom-ises so that your customers can make plans and bring you business.
I am in the law business. When people call me with a problem, they do not want to hear about how my rent went up, how my word processing equip-ment is acting up, and how many of my staff members are out on vacation. They want answers to their questions. My problems are not their problems.
The Postal Service has made it hard for customers to trust it and to bring more business. Last year’s exigency increase came as a shock and budget-buster for many mailers. The continued un-certainty about what will happen with exigency in the future does not create a climate of confidence.
I understand that the Postal Service is frustrated with Congress and all of the regulatory constraints that make it hard to run a business – but do not pass the pain on to your customers. If you want to create a climate where business and revenue can increase, go out on a ledge a bit and make some plans and promises that make custom-ers want to do business with you. Give your customers a reason to make long term plans, and in turn make com-mitments, that could bring the USPS more business.
Here is my proposal. If the Postal Ser-vice does not prevail in its exigency appeal and it is stuck with a limit on its exigency surcharge, make a com-mitment now to your customers to forego taking a CPI increase in January 2015 and make a promise and pledge of rate predictability for the next two years.
Oh, I get it that the USPS cannot pre-dict the future. It will probably need to bury some legal disclaimer that would give it the right to bring another “exi-
gency” or emergency rate increase if something unexpected happens. But have a little faith in your own people, products, and the power of predictable pricing to make existing and future customers commit to your service.
As the Executive Director of SMC, I have been listening to my members and “customers” for decades. The dis-tribution profiles for papers, and the markets operated by shared mailers, take months and years to plan, open, and develop. The entire idea behind a CPI, rate-cap structure was to add predictability to the Postal Service. The multiple requests for exigency increases, combined with significant changes in some rates or rate elements, have made it difficult for mailers to plan and “trust” the Postal Service. When you look at the Postal Service’s revenue numbers for the year, Stan-dard Mail has been relatively stable. But I am here to tell you that many of my members would have expanded their mail profiles, would have added weight to their packages, and would have increased frequency, if the Postal Service had kept rates at CPI and had not hit its customers with a 4.3% in-crease over CPI.
The Postal Service acknowledges the elasticity of its business and admits that the next regular rate change for January 2015 could result in a decline in volume due to increased prices. I am exhorting the Postal Service to turn the potential loss of its exigency ap-peal into a plan to win more custom-ers, revenue and future volume. If the Postal Service learns before the end of 2014 that its exigency surcharge is lim-ited along the lines of the PRC order, it should make a public pronouncement to customers that there will be no in-crease in prices in 2015 and pledge to give its customers pricing predictabil-ity throughout the next rate cycle to sometime in 2016.
I do not want to “predict” whether or not the Postal Service will listen or respond to this modest proposal. If I had to, I probably would not be optimistic that the Postal Service will seek to make lemonade out of lemons. But I have always been a bit of a Pol-lyanna. So I hope some of the pricing and product gurus in the Postal Ser-vice take a good hard look at the up-side of making a commitment to your customers to keep rates predictable and give businesses an opportunity to plan and promote in the year or years to come.
EXIGENCY UPDATEThe appellate process involving the appeals by the USPS to make the 4.3% exigency surcharge permanent, along with the corresponding appeals of the mailing industry challenging the ap-proval of any exigency and, alterna-tively, supporting the Postal Regulato-ry Commission’s limit on the exigency surcharge to be in place for a limited period to allow the Postal Service to recover the revenue and contribu-tion it lost in the great recession, con-tinue before the United States Court of Appeals. Briefs have been filed by the Department of Justice in support of the PRC decision, by the USPS in support of its appeal and attacking the arguments of the mailers, and by the mailers in support of the limits set by the PRC. The Court of Appeals has set September 9, 2014 as the date for oral argument. With this time table, it is likely that the Postal Service and the mailing industry will, once again, en-ter the holiday season waiting for news on what will happen with the 4.3 exi-gency increase.
If the Postal Service gets what it wants, the 4.3% increase will become a per-manent increase that will be included in the rate base for any future CPI rate adjustments allowed under current law.
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V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 698.4096 (888)450-8329 fax 10
Although the mailers have challenged the granting of any exigency relief, the chief mission of the mailers is to sup-port the PRC and its decision limiting the 4.3% exigency increase to a period of time, estimated to be approximately 18 months from January 2014, to al-low the Postal Service to recoup the estimated $3.2 billion in revenue the Postal Service showed it had lost due to the great recession - as opposed to losses caused by other factors like electronic diversion.
Although the holiday season is the likely date for a decision by the Unit-ed States Court of Appeals, a decision does not mean certainty or a clear ability for mailers to plan or predict future postal rate increases. Unless the Court of Appeals decides that the Postal Service, the PRC or mailers are “100% right,” a potential outcome is for the Court of Appeals to find some
deficiencies in the PRC’s decision, to discuss any shortcomings it finds in the PRC’s analysis or findings, and to send the case back to the PRC for re-consideration in light of the Court of Appeals’ opinion.
SAVING 6-DAYEarlier this year, the House Subcom-mittee with oversight responsibility on the Postal Service passed a postal reform law that would have given the Postal Service the flexibility to reduce its weekly mailing schedule to 5-day service, with no mail service on Satur-day except for parcels. It does not ap-pear likely that bill will be called to the floor for full discussion or debate any time soon.
Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee had something different to say about the future of 6-day. As it has with every appropriations bill in
the past, the House Committee on Ap-propriations showed full approval for an amendment to the appropriations bill that would direct the United States Postal Service to continue to provide the nation with 6-day mail delivery service. It appears likely that the Sen-ate Appropriations Committee will consider a similar amendment and re-quirement in its appropriations bill.
For the Postal Service, “Five Day” has been a cornerstone of its reform plan. The public appears lukewarm on the idea with mailing industry reaction mixed depending upon the needs of individual mailers. Rural congressmen and the postal unions, however, have consistently denounced the proposal as a job-killer, and are significantly more successful than mailers in get-ting elected officials to champion their cause.
V I S I T U S A T W W W . T C N A T O D A Y . C O M
Texas Community Newspaper Association (931) 698.4096 (888)450-8329 fax 11
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