3/26/09
There was a time when putting something in the mail with the right postage could guarantee its speedy delivery.
There was a time when people gave small Christmas presents to their regular postal carriers because they felt gratitude for the good job they did all year long.
Have we lost those times? Are we spinning the dice when we drop mail at the post office? Have we grown accustomed to letters spending time in a sack for a week or so before they move to delivery?
Last week members of the National Newspaper Association traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk about the mail with members of Congress. The Milton Times is one of the many members of NNA.
We need the mail to be safe, secure, delivered on time and in a cost-efficient way.
For 14 years we have depended on the mail for our delivery system. Our paper is delivered every Thursday in Milton. Out-of-town delivery is less reliable.
The system hasn’t been perfect but we have a regular way to deal with the issues. When a subscriber calls our office complaining that they haven’t seen their paper this week, we call across the street to the post office where we leave about a dozen extra papers for just such occasions. And one of the mail handlers makes sure the missing paper is replaced.
Over the course of time, we have discovered a few instances of neighbors stealing the news. We have found that sometimes the paper has ended in the hands of a child or spouse, hidden from view.
Lately, however, we have begun to look into alternatives to mail delivery. We still don’t know what those ways would be but finding an empty subscription envelope in our post office box last week was a trigger. The envelope had been cut open.
The next day, the subscription form that matched the envelope appeared in the post office box by itself.
We are losing faith. But we have a hope that six-day delivery might be preserved. We have a hope that hard work and honesty will come back into fashion.

Pat Desmond
Publisher