Local Newspapers Put Their Stamp on the 2-Cent Rate Increase Story

By Vandana Sinha
January 13, 2006 02:58 PM

A recent lede in the Berkshire Eagle said it all: "Never has 2 cents caused such a stir."

And never has 2 cents caused so many business headlines, from Pittsburgh to Peoria.

The rate increase in postal stamps, from 37 cents to 39 cents, may have customers scrambling to buy the difference at their neighborhood post offices. But it's also had business reporters working just as mightily to cover the story at the neighborhood newspaper. Luckily, this is a story even the smallest of circulated papers can localize.

And many business reporters did so by taking their notepads to the nearest post office and talking to regular consumers.

They can also better paint a scene for readers that way. Reporters described lines "snaking" around corners to the cash registers, and more tired-looking people waiting in front of automated stamp dispensing machines.

"It looked like the middle of Christmas season inside the Fenn Street post office," Benning De La Mater reported in the Berkshire Eagle. "Outside, customers double-parked, honked their horns and hurriedly pulled in and out of the few available spots."

One reporter, Ron Knox of the Lawrence Journal-World, narrated an exchange between a postal clerk and customers.

" 'Anybody just here to pick up packages?' he asked. No one moved.

" 'Anyone need 2-cent stamps?' Maria David raised her hand and stepped toward the counter."

There's some nice dialogue and color - and an instant source.

Normally, the main voice in these stories comes from postmasters who can measure how many stamps flew off shelves at what speed. A post office in Littleston, Pa., sold 10,000 2-cent stamps in nine hours. Another in Monterey had to order 80,000 more after its initial 50,000 sold out. Customers in yet another Pennsylvania post office, in Lancaster County, snatched up more than 200,000 2-cent stamps.

Those numbers will grab readers, but don't forget about other numbers behind the scenes - the revenues and the reasons for the rate increase in the first place.

"Wagner stressed that the increase was not driven by operating costs or revenue shortfalls," writes reporter Rishika Murthy of the Peoria Journal Star. "In fact, despite rising gas prices and fuel costs, the revenue was up by $1.4 billion the past year compared to 2004."

Instead, several reporters explained, the Postal Service was abiding by a federal law requiring it to keep a $3.1 billion escrow that Congress will decide how to spend later.

To clarify even further, some newspapers ran graphics with their stories, listing each rate increase since 1863, or each increase in 2006, from postcards to money orders.

In the mix of money, however, think of not just the businesses selling the stamps, but also the businesses buying them. What is the fate of small to medium-sized businesses down the street that must hunt for thousands of these 2-cent stamps for their daily operations? To what lengths are local mom-and-pop stores going to find them?

Forget two pennies, tell the stories of the stir they are causing in your neighborhoods, and you will buy yourself countless readers.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism