Postal rates for newspaper delivery are slipping
In July, Parliament decided to abolish subsidies through reduced postal rates for the delivery of member newspapers of commercial institutions. But even without press subsidies, the Coop newspaper still reaches letterboxes at low cost: Coop took precautions in the spring and negotiated reduced rates with Swiss Post.
In July, Parliament decided to abolish subsidies for the delivery of member newspapers of commercial institutions by means of reduced postal rates. However, even without press subsidies, the Coop newspaper still reaches letterboxes at low cost: Coop took precautions in the spring and negotiated reduced rates with Swiss Post, meaning that the retail giant's market weight alone ensured that it could continue to send the 2.4 million copies of the Coop newspaper at favorable rates. The abolition of the subsidized low rates means that the market has started to play, postal regulator Marin Kaiser is quoted in Cashdaily. He believes that other providers will soon be entering the newspaper delivery market. The example of the Swiss Post subsidiary Direct Mail shows how competition will express itself in figures: It is to charge just 7.2 centimes per copy for the distribution of the new free newspaper .ch. This is still considerably less than the average postal rate of 30 centimes under the old Press Subsidies Act.
