Prohibitive Postage

The announcement from the Postal Rate Commission called it a "landmark decision." For the magazine industry and some newspapers, last week's ruling certainly stands out--like a mausoleum with the logotypes of many publications on it. The commission, while it cut back proposed rate increases in a number of mail categories, approved most of a second-class postage raise so huge that it threatens the survival of some magazines and the health of many more (see ESSAY).

The U.S. Postal Service had originally requested a second-class increase that amounted to nearly 150% spread over five years. The first installment took effect last spring on a "temporary" basis while the hearing and approval process went forward. A Postal Rate Commission examiner went along with the proposal over the publishing industry's vehement objections (TIME, Feb. 21), and last week it was the turn of the full commission to rule. It shaved the second-class increase down to an average of 127%, or from about $193.5 million to $172 million when fully effective in 1976. The nine governors of the Postal Service are expected to approve the 127% figure this month.

Hill Help. Publishers reacted angrily. Stephen Kelly, president of the Magazine Publishers Association, damned the increases as "prohibitive" and predicted that the industry could not absorb the increases "without suffering an enormous loss." Time Inc. Board Chairman Andrew Heiskell charged that the increases would have "a devastating effect," and urged that Congress act before the Postal Service "delivers an irreparable blow to publishers and readers." Newsweek Board Chairman Osborn Elliott said that the action "flies in the face of one of the clear intents of Congress, which was to assure the vitality of magazines as a force for unity."

The publishers can look to Capitol Hill for at least some moral support. This week Arizona Democrat Morris Udall will preside at House Postal Service subcommittee hearings that will take testimony from industry spokesmen. At present, no rate legislation is pending, although the publishers have begun to lobby for such a bill.

Once the governors of the Postal Service act on the Rate Commission recommendations, the decision can be appealed to federal court. The publishers can attempt to prove, in effect, that the size of the increase violates the legislation that created the new Postal Service. But while that is being fought out, the higher rates would remain in effect. To add to the publishers' gloom, there were reports that the Postal Service is planning to ask for new, across-the-board increases next year.

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