Save Small and Independent Publishers
Postal regulators have accepted a proposal from media giant Time Warner that would stifle small and independent publishers in America. The plan unfairly burdens smaller publishers with higher postage rates while locking in special privileges for bigger media companies. In establishing the U.S. postal system, the nation's founders wanted to ensure that a diversity of viewpoints were available to 'the whole mass of the people." Time Warner's rate increase reverses this egalitarian ideal and threatens the marketplace of ideas on which our democracy depends. It's time [to] stand up for independent media.'" Robert McChesney writes, "What the Post Office is now proposing goes directly against 215 years of postal policy. The Post Office is in the process of implementing a radical reformulation of its mailing rates for magazines. Under the plan, smaller periodicals will be hit with a much larger increase than the big magazines, as much as 30 percent. Some of the largest circulation magazines will face hikes of less than 10 percent. The new rates, which go into effect on July 15, were developed with no public involvement or congressional oversight, and the increased costs could damage hundreds, even thousands, of smaller publications, possibly putting many out of business. This includes nearly every political journal in the nation. These are the magazines that often provide the most original journalism and analysis." "Post Office to the First Amendment: Drop Dead," CommonDreams.org (17 April 2007); emphasis added (see also the Nation magazine article posted by Free Press). Please sign the petition to Congress and the US Postal Service opposing the unfair postal rate hikes, which would hurt small publishers, like your own AToday.