News

USPS Postal Alert 3/17/2020:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) – Periodicals Publishing Frequency

In response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) the following contingency plan has been implemented for Periodicals that will not be publishing per their stated frequency.

Periodicals Publishing Frequency Contingency Plan due to COVID-19

Publishers:

·       Should submit a letter on the publisher’s letterhead to the Original Entry Post Office serving their Known Office of Publication explaining that they will not be publishing as per their stated frequency

·       Should identify what issues will not be published to the Original Entry Post Office serving their Known Office of Publication

·       Should provide an update to the Original Entry Post Office serving their Known Office of Publication if impact to frequency continues beyond original identified issues

Note: PS Form 3510, Application for Reentry or Special Price Request for Periodicals Publication, is not required if frequency change is due to COVID-19

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to the Mailing & Shipping Solutions Center at 877-672-0007 or your local Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU).

During this time of uncertainty, you can be confident in Interlink – our infrastructure allows us to function at full capacity remotely and we are doing so for our employees’ safety. We are open and ready to help you!

Please note, however, that our phone provider is experiencing heavy usage which has impacted our phone system. You may reach our voicemail when you call, and we ask that you leave a message or email us at support@ilsw.com.

The following options are available for labeling your newspapers, and are confirmed USPS Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) compatible and officially supported by Interlink:

Dot Matrix Printers

• Epson LQ-590/Epson LQ-590 II
• Epson FX-890/Epson FX-890 II
• Epson LQ-2090/ Epson LQ-2090 II
• Epson FX-2190/ Epson FX-2190 II
• Epson DFX 9000 (9-pin only)
• Okidata ML 490
• Okidata ML 491

Thermal Printers* (z-fold, no tractors 1-up only)

• Citizen CL-S621
• Citizen CLP-621

(*Interlink rents thermal printers for a low monthly fee.)

Laser Printers

Most laser labels (i.e., Avery 2–up) are compatible. Interlink recommends keeping these on hand if you use a different labeling system in case of emergencies. Note that 3-up labels are not large enough to print the IMb.

The following printers are known to be IMb incompatible:

• Citizen CLP-6002
• Citizen 7202 E
• Citizen CL-S700
• Epson Stylus 1520
• Okidata ML 320
• Okidata ML 321\321 Turbo
• Okidata ML 395
• Okidata ML 420
• Okidata ML 421
• Okidata ML 591

The recent list servicing issue has been resolved. If your sort order was affected please roll back and re-close issue. Be sure that the “service list” box is checked.

Due to recent issues with sorting labels, Interlink has disabled list servicing. If you need to close an issue, please uncheck the “service list” button. We hope to have this resolved as quickly as possible and will post an update at that time.

Interlink has named Laura Streelman as Sales Manager. Laura most recently served as Interlink’s Product Manager, where she directed the production and launch of True Newspaper Mail – the industry’s first newspaper-specific, cloud-based mailing system. Laura’s immersion in the product side of Interlink makes her well-suited to help direct prospective clients to the solutions that best meet their needs. Laura can be reached at laura@ilsw.com.

Interlink officially welcomes new members to its staff

Karen Coleman joined Interlink as Marketing and Communication Manager and will be responsible for growing sales leads and coordinating communication channels with our customers and prospects. Karen joins Interlink with 18 years of experience in the newspaper industry, most recently at AMG/Parade where she was Business Director of Newspaper Relations.  Please reach out to Karen directly at karen@ilsw.com to ensure you are on our mailing lists, and remember to follow us on both Facebook and Twitter! 

Our Client Solutions team has added two representatives, Angie Heiss and Jess Kellerstrass. Angie brings with her to Interlink vast experience, most recently as a data analyst. She always looks forward to the opportunity to assist our clients and enjoys enabling them to reach their goals. To contact Angie directly, please send email to angie@ilsw.com. Jess comes to us straight from college at Purdue University, where she received a BS in Psychology. She is excited to assist Interlink customers as she puts her customer-facing experience to work in her first desk job. Jess can be reached at jess@ilsw.com.

According to PostalOne!, the slow performance issue impacting processing times for eDoc submissions has been resolved.  Ticket Incident #4093877 is closed. 

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We have received widespread reports from papers that can’t submit eDoc. USPS has confirmed the issue and is working on it. No known time frame for resolution yet.

Anyone unable to submit eDoc should mail under the contingency plan. Hard-copy postage statements should NOT be submitted to USPS, instead follow the guidelines in the contingency plan.

The PostalOne! Help Desk has issued ticket #4093877 that can be referenced to acceptance staff when mailing.

Some papers have reported local post offices refusing to accept or process mailing without postage statements in their system, which is not a requirement when operating under the contingency plan per Page 4 of the contingency plan as noted below.

FROM PAGE 4 OF THE CONTIGENCY PLAN

Acceptance of mailings during a System Issue or Outage: During a system issue or outage Acceptance units will remain open during normal business hours and continue to accept and process customer mailings. Acceptance employees will follow the steps outlined in Section 3 of this document.

Release of Mailings to Operations: Mailings accepted during a system issue or outage will be released to Operations without delay. Additional details of this process can be found in Section 4 of this document.

See the full contingency plan here: https://postalpro.usps.com/node/852.

Join Interlink’s CEO Brad Hill and USPS Business Mailer Support expert Donna Paris as they explain how the new Enterprise Payment System works. This program will be held on Thursday, February 14, at 11 a.m. Eastern and is sponsored by the National Newspaper Association.  If you currently use the USPS CAPS account option, this live webinar is a must because CAPS will retire April 1, 2019!  Click here for more information and to register.

On Sunday, January 7, the Postal Service updated their requirement for the Non-DDU Drop Site Key. These are now required in order to submit eDoc successfully. If this has not been populated in your list, you will need to do so before you can submit. Please follow these steps in order to add the Non-DDU Drop Site Key to your list configuration:

1. From the File menu, select Roll back list… which restores from a backup taken just before your most recent issue was closed.
   IMPORTANT: All changes made since the last issue was closed will be lost.
2. From the File menu, select Configure list…
3. Under the General tab, at the bottom, you will see a blank box with a box next to it that says “Lookup.” Click this box and the key will populate.
4. Click the OK button.
5. Close the issue and submit eDoc as normal.

By Brad Hill

Interlink publishes a new version of Circulation every month, but the January 2017 release is particularly important and should be installed immediately when prompted. In addition to the regular updates to mail routing, upcoming version 2.4.20 also includes support for the new postage rates that go into effect this month. Updating will ensure new rates and new postage statements are available for both Periodical and Standard Mail, which are required for use with all mailings dated on or after January 22.

Version 2.4.20 must be installed prior to running ‘Close Issue’ to create labels and other mailing reports for issues mailed under the new rates and forms.

Interlink Circulation uses the date of your mailing to determine whether to use the old postage statements or new ones. Changes to the electronic equivalent (eDoc) of postage statements are also included in the same update.

For most newspapers, the impact of January’s postage rate increase will be minimal, with Periodical Mail costs increasing less than one percent overall. Outside-county sacks and trays carry the bulk of the increase.

Standard Mail is being renamed USPS Marketing Mail, and will see rates increase between two and three percent for flats overall, but closer to one percent for most shoppers. See Max Heath’s article in the January edition of Publishers’ Auxiliary for a chart with and detailed explanation of Marketing Mail rate changes.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions about the upcoming release of Interlink Circulation, or changes to postage rates.