Taking newspapers’ message to Capitol Hill

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, center, met with the Missouri delegation during the National Newspaper Association’s ‘We believe in newspapers’ summit recently in Washington, D.C. Shown discussing current postal concerns with McCaskill are, from left, Helen Sosniecki, former Missouri newspaper owner and past NNA State Representative, now Interlink Senior Sales and Marketing Manager; Jim Robertson, Columbia Daily Tribune Managing Editor and Missouri Press Association Second Vice-President; Dane Vernon, President of Vernon Publishing, Inc., Eldon, and NNA Region 7 Director; and Trevor Vernon, Eldon Advertiser Publisher and current NNA State Representative.

The group discussed NNA concerns about the possible loss of six-day mail delivery, the Negotiated Service Agreement the U.S. Postal Service has with direct-mail company Valassis which provides Valassis deep mailing discounts, delivery issues, the impact of USPS’ Every Door Direct Mail on some publishers and other postal and publishing-related topics. While discussing NNA postal concerns with Sen. McCaskill, the delegation learned that the Board of Governors of the USPS, a nine-member board, currently operates with only five members.

The Missouri group also met with Sen. Roy Blunt, R-MO, and with staff members who deal with postal concerns for both McCaskill and Blunt. Sosniecki and Interlink President Brad Hill were among about 100 participants in the summit. Besides making visits to the Hill, attendees heard from Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, USPS Inspector General David C. Williams, Vice President/Network Operations David E. Williams and Manager/Direct Mail and Periodicals Tom Foti.