BY SERGE LAVOIE, CCNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
MARCH, 2001
“How about that Canada Post, eh?”
That phrase is a curious way to start a column, let alone a conversation. But whenever two or more community newspaper publishers gather around a coffee urn, inevitably that’s the topic. Canada Post and its policies and its pricing and its service and its attitude to community newspapers is the topic.
It’s not surprising really. The Canadian postal service and community newspapers have worked together since before Confederation. For much of that time, community newspapers enjoyed a special status, receiving subsidized rates and free distribution zones. There was recognition that community newspapers knit their communities together, that they informed and educated citizens. There was a strong government mandate to ensure community newspapers reached their readers at fair prices and that no readers should be excluded solely because of high distribution costs.
All of that changed when governments lost their taste for long-term structural subsidies. In addition, governments got fed up with being dragged down into the quagmire of perpetual labour unrest that existed at the postal service. The solution was simple — Canada Post is now a corporation with a mandate to operate efficiently, expand markets, and make a profit. The connection to government is now as thin as a thread.
Which is where our sector’s problems begin.
Since receiving corporate status, Canada Post has gone through a gradual process of changing its administrative practices, simplifying its services and, of course, raising its rates. Some of this it did willingly, some it did with considerable prodding. The mandate review of the mid-90s demonstrated how determined the corporation was to keep itself at a distance from government. The government’s response to the mandate review — one-and-a-half recommendations accepted out of a total of 31 — demonstrated government’s willingness to maintain that distance.
All of that is history, of course, but it affects us in fundamental ways.
The drive for corporate autonomy, protected within a quasi-monopolistic framework, makes it very difficult to effect meaningful change, especially if the change is seen as working against the interests of the corporation.
That’s where we come in. Community newspapers are clients of Canada Post, yes, but they are also competitors. They deliver advertising flyers, a business that Canada Post wants a share of, a business that it once had a larger share of before the mandate review resulted in the withdrawal of the Economy Admail service.
Community newspapers, for their part, simply need Canada Post. There are relatively few markets in Canada where the operation of a carrier force is feasible. In smaller communities and rural areas, Canada Post is the sole solution. Almost 60 per cent of community newspapers publish from communities officially designated as rural by Canada Post. Many more publish in larger communities but distribute in rural areas.
The rules for community newspaper distribution through Canada Post aren’t simple. Those that are addressed must use Publications Mail if they adhere to certain eligibility criteria. The key criteria is that there may be no more than 70 per cent of the publication devoted to advertising, including all inserts.
To put that in perspective, a 20-page tabloid with 60 per cent ad content in the main publication and a single eight-page flyer insert immediately runs afoul of the 70 per cent rule.
Unaddressed publications have even more rules to concern them. Unaddressed Admail is designed to deliver advertising messages to Canadian households. It is the only unaddressed service option available from Canada Post. One has to question why community newspapers are forced to distribute through a service designed solely for advertisers when a cleaner option would be to offer community newspaper distribution through Publications Mail in both an addressed and unaddressed version, using the same basic definitions of publication. The CCNA Distribution Committee proposed such an approach and was turned down.
The rules within Unaddressed Admail are also problematic. Flyers (or community newspapers) weighing more than 113 grams immediately lose access to volume contract rates. That only applies to rural delivery areas. In urban areas where Canada Post uses postal carriers, flyers (and community newspapers) weighing more than 113 grams are not accepted at all. This is apparently the outcome of a provision in the collective agreement that limits the weight of unaddressed items.
This restriction on weight doesn’t apply to unaddressed magazines and catalogues. These are allowed a 200 gram limit in either circumstance. Again, one has to ask why the rules are different for community newspapers than for magazines or catalogues.
At the time of this writing (Feb. 20, 2001), CCNA was seeking clarification on a further set of eligibility criteria to come into effect April 1, 2001 that would impose a 70 per cent limit on advertising, including all inserts, on community newspapers using Unaddressed Admail. Further, to be eligible for the service, the content of community newspapers must be “relevant to communities in which it is distributed.”
Where does that come from? Why in the world is it necessary to define community newspapers in relation to the relevance of their content simply to allow them use of a service designed to distribute advertising content?
There may be operational reasons for some of these rules. We’ve certainly heard rationalizations from senior Canada Post officials. Taken as a whole, however, it’s hard not to see a pattern of rules and guidelines designed to put community newspapers at a disadvantage relative to other client groups and to Canada Post itself.
Regardless of government’s fervent wish to stay disconnected from the workings of Canada Post, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that these policies need third-party oversight. Somebody has to decide if they are fair. Someone has to decide if they are an attempt to manipulate the workings of the marketplace to benefit Canada Post. Someone has to decide if the needs of Canadians – especially rural Canadians – are being well served by the present system.
This, it would seem, is the next series of challenges for this association.
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