Until its mismanaged finances improve, the US Postal Service plans to squeeze more money out of – guess who? – newspaper publishers and their loyal readers.

They aim to squeeze this little newspaper and its sister weekly, The Fish Wrapper, which you may enjoy and depend on for straight, honest news.

We are not accusing our many friends at the Lexington County post offices. They do good work delivering your newspapers and have nothing to do with these inflationary decisions.

It has been standard practice for the Postal Service to announce bad news right before a holiday and last Memorial Day weekend was no exception.

On May 28, USPS announced proposed rate increases for 1st Class, Periodicals and Marketing Mail that in some cases are 7 times the rate of inflation:

Newspapers like ours which we mail to you face the biggest increase, with the average to mail outside the county rising 8.832% and within the county subscribers 8.311%.

USPS officials must feel they can push little newspapers around because “nobody reads them any more.” In comparison, junk mail

In comparison, junk mail you throw away will pay only 4.961% more to reach you.

The US Postal Service isn’t the only one sticking such outrageous rates to all of us.

During the pandemic, many paper mills were forced to close and few have reopened.

With less competition, the owners of the surviving mills have seen this as an ideal time to stick it to all of us with higher rates for the newsprint your newspapers are printed on.

Add to that an 8% inflation rate that Congress and the administration in Washington has caused with runaway spending.

Our capability at the Chronicle to hold advertising and subscription rates down has become impossible. We will be forced to raise our rates, too.

We are working on that now and will let you know.

To comment on this, please email JerryBellune@yahoo.com

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