Newspapers could see impacts from proposed post office consolidation

Talk about consolidating post offices across the U.S. has newspaper companies looking at potential impacts to deliveries and billing.

The consolidation idea arose as the U.S. Postal Service deals with losses adding up to billions of dollars a year and a line of credit with the U.S. Treasury that is tapped out at $15 billion.

Locally, closing processing centers in Kalispell and Missoula and moving them to Spokane, Wash., would end overnight delivery of local first-class mail for Western Montana.

Impacts to weekly newspapers in the Flathead Valley, however, may not be serious. The Hungry Horse News, for example, is delivered by newspaper company personnel to the post office in Columbia Falls, where it is inserted in post office boxes or delivered to local addresses.

Newspapers heading out of the county, however, need to go to the Kalispell post office. If the Kalispell processing center is moved to Spokane, then newspapers heading out of the county could be delayed about one day.

The same scenario would apply to the Whitefish Pilot and the Bigfork Eagle, which have post offices in their home towns.

The U.S. Postal Service, facing political pressure in Washington, D.C., has agreed to delay any post office closures until mid-May.