Going up

Effective the first of the year, the subscription rate for the Post-Gazette will be going up to $24.00 annually in Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, and $27.00 annually outside the counties.

We are very reluctant to make this increase. We have tried to hold the line against rising prices, but things have reached the point where things just can't be put off any longer, so along with other rate increases, we felt that we must increase the subscription rate.

Basically, the subscription rate reflects what it costs us to mail the papers to subscribers. We've held the line over a number of postal rate increases over several years -- they've mostly been small and we've felt we could absorb them. But the last one, last summer, was much bigger, and when we got done adding things up we came to the realization that we've absorbed nearly a fifty percent increase in postal rates. Frankly, we really ought to raise the subscription rate even more in order to keep up, but we'll keep it to a minimum this year.

At least we can say that this latest postal rate increase came coupled with a new mailing procedure that is supposed to cut down considerably on the problems with delivery of out of town newspapers. It's still a little early to say how it's going to work out in the long run but we've had a smaller number of complaints than normal from out of state the past few weeks, so there's some hope.

The first of the year is also a convenient time to adjust rates in other areas. The one I'd like to draw your attention to is our classified rate: we're going to rationalize it at a flat fifteen cents a word. It's still one of the lowest classified rates for the readers reached that you're likely to find.

Again, we're very reluctant to raise rates. We've tried to hold the line, and probably  held it a little too long. Hopefully this will take care of it for a while.      -- WB

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