Switching newspaper delivery from costly carriers to the U.S. Postal Service seemed like a no-brainer for Jordan Brechenser, president and publisher of Vermont News and Media. But things quickly got complicated, and that was before a local postmaster obtained an order of protection and moved to a new post office after a confrontation in a local bar.
The decline of print journalism has left penny-pinching publishers with fewer and fewer levers to pull. Stepping back from carriers last year enabled Brechenser to increase staff and pursue his mission of covering local news in southern Vermont. His advertisers were on board, too.
Brechenser figured out how to obtain a postal permit, label and assemble the newspapers by mail route and drop them off in individual totes before 6 a.m. at local post offices, so they could arrive in readers’ mailboxes that same day.