NNA announces practical workshop for printers responsible for newspaper mailing

Dec 16, 2015

A hard-hitting educational workshop for printers and publishers that prepare Periodicals newspapers has been announced by the National Newspaper Association for March 16, 2016, in Washington.

Practical and detailed, the event will focus on mail preparation techniques to help newspapers improve on-time delivery in the mail. This education program is one of many steps NNA is taking to address an outbreak of subscriber complaints about mail delivery.

NNA President Chip Hutcheson, publisher of The Times Leader in Princeton, KY, said attendees should come prepared to dig into the details of creating bundles and containers, targeting critical entry times so newspapers do not miss transportation opportunities and utilizing new U.S. Postal Service service hubs. They should also bring their own concerns for top USPS officials to address. NNA will also unravel some of the complexity surrounding electronic documentation and Full-Service IMb.

Hutcheson said, “We expect this workshop to be pretty specific about best practices, but it also will be general enough that publishers who have so far found postal a somewhat inaccessible topic will get a lot out of these sessions.”

The Postal Service also learns from interactions with newspaper printers and publishers, NNA Postal Committee Chair Max Heath said. The workshop will capture follow-up tasks coming from question and answer sessions for NNA or USPS to improve newspaper mail.

“NNA has been engaged for the past year in kaizen (continuous improvement) studies designed to dive into the problems newspapers face in mail processing. We have to be honest with ourselves. While USPS can improve, some of the problems are created by us as we prepare mail. The mail system has changed and newspapers have sometimes not kept up. At the same time, we have to ask for what we need from the Postal Service. We can and we will.

“I urge newspaper printers to send someone to this event. I guarantee you will learn something critical to your business,” he said. “Attendees are also invited to register for the Community Newspaper Leadership Summit the next day so we can carry our concerns to Capitol Hill in time to pass a bill that will prevent further deterioration in service.”

The event will begin with lunch at 11:30 a.m. March 16 at USPS Headquarters in Washington. Attendees must be registered before March 11, 2016, to be approved for admittance by USPS security. Cost is $75 for NNA members, $150 for non-members. To register, go to https://nna.formstack.com/forms/printersworkshop.

To see the program agenda, go here.