VIRGINIA PUBLIC RADIO, MICHAEL POPE

Virginia has the worst on-time delivery rates in the country ever since the United States Postal Service made changes to the Richmond Regional Processing and Delivery Center.

That’s a problem for newspapers that are delivered using periodical delivery rates. Matt Paxton is publisher of the News Gazette in Lexington.

“It’s like listening to a radio broadcast that was done a month ago. It’s not current,” Paxton says. “You buy a newspaper or you listen to the radio for current information and for news, and if it’s not delivered in a timely manner it loses value.”

That’s why Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger introduced the Deliver for Democracy Act, which would limit rate increases until the Postal Service gets its act together. She says periodical rates have gone up six times in the last three-and-a-half years although the newspapers continue to be delivered late.

“The difference between receiving the mail that was supposed to arrive on a Monday or a Tuesday and getting it on a Friday or a Saturday means you might miss everything from the local goings on to the news that’s being reported to the sale at the local store. The whole purpose of that timely engagement with news in your community is lost,” Spanberger argues.

Spanberger is working with a Republican from Alabama on the bill, and similar legislation has also gained bipartisan support in the Senate.