THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
or How newsrooms can build business relations with Ukrposhta?
No one doubts that Ukrposhta, which simply stopped delivering newspapers to subscribers, is directly involved in the sharp drop in print media circulation. This was again confirmed by the round table called Practical Issues Of Regulation And Co-Regulation Of Print Media with the participation of editors and the Director General of Ukrposhta, Ihor Smilianskyi. For me, the conclusion of the meeting with the head of Ukrposhta was figuratively expressed by the editor from Citsnihiv, Serhii Narodenko, who said:
“It is a difficult business to bargain with Smilianskyi… I did not bargain anything… And, do agree, it’s not the first year. Because, maybe, we don’t know how to bargain?”
What is the editors’ rhetoric based on in relation to Ukrposhta? We always ask: we ask to improve the delivery of newspapers and we ask to organize a subscription; not to increase delivery rates; not to close communication offices in villages; consider that a newspaper is a special product, and its delivery cannot be based solely on market considerations. And we ask for many, many more things instead of finally concluding a real contract with Ukrposhta about its real services and collectively demand their strict observance.
Yes, today we have a contract with Ukrposhta. But it was written by Mr. Smilianskyi in the interests of his department and with a deep conviction that the editors will not go anywhere. At the same time, Smilianskyi managed to put the purely transport and forwarding services of Ukrposhta in the contract not only on par but even significantly above the efforts of newspaper editors, which are objectively an important link of national information security. According to the current contract, journalists are ordinary assistants of the post office in the information field, which dictates its terms to newsrooms. It [Ukrposhta] presents itself as a “keeper of order” in the media space, even resorting to direct prohibitions to editors on what to write and what to post in the newspaper. Also – it stubbornly takes over the functions of a kind of regulator of the relationship between the media and the reader, dictates its terms, whom and under what conditions it will subscribe, when to make a subscription, and how when to give the money for a subscription to the editors, it sets its own, convenient for its, delivery schedules newspapers. When it massively violates these delivery schedules, it never takes responsibility for it and has never apologized to readers and editors.
At the last round table with the editors, the director of Ukrposhta acknowledged the failures but promised to eliminate them. And again drew good plans. In particular, he said that the department is creating a computer database of subscribers and will offer them to renew their subscription by phone. Some of Ihor Smilianskyi‘s voiced proposals are even frightening: starting next year, Ukrposhta wants to return money to subscribers for undelivered copies of the printed press before the subscriber has time to complain to them. And what amount will be returned, at the expense of those funds, according to which method will the losses of newsrooms be calculated for the intellectual work of journalists not delivered to the reader? And the threat to demand compensation from the editors for the “paired” issues is generally an outright racket, about which you should write a statement to the police.
And as a cherry on the cake, there is the traditional increase in tariffs for delivery and registration of subscriptions. This year, by 25%.
What about the editors? They didn’t even argue about the new tariffs, they all asked Mr. Smilianskyi in unison: when will the post office deliver prepaid publications?
In response, Mr. Smilianskyi frankly stated: I cannot do miracles!
Wait, but the delivery of the newspaper to the subscriber is the basis of the contract between the editors and Ukrposhta! If a post office does not deliver the newspaper to the subscriber on time, why does it sign a contract about it?
This is what I propose: let’s not expect a miracle from Ihor Smilianskyi and demand from him specific work, which should be provided for in the new contract between the editors and Ukrposhta because the current one should be thrown into the trash.
The concept of the new contract should be based on the fact that Ukrposhta only delivers prepaid newspapers to subscribers. No more, but no less. It must weigh its options and decide in each specific case: in which settlements it will be able to deliver newspapers to the mailbox of the subscriber, in which it will deliver them only to the office of the territorial community. There will be settlements the post will not come to at all because such are the realities! But what it agrees to must be absolutely fulfilled, or it will have to pay a big fine – both to the reader and to the editor.
What about organizing a subscription? Editors should understand that this is their business and only theirs. Therefore, we have to deal with the subscription ourselves and hand over the filled subscription cards to the post office to organize the delivery of the newspaper to the subscribers to pay the post office bills for real delivery services. Of course, there can be no additional fee for issuing an editorial subscription!
Today, this is not only an urgent need but also new opportunities. Especially taking into account the development of subscriptions via the Internet, it is possible to easily transfer funds from card to card. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to develop editorial subscriptions, form subscriber databases, constantly maintain contact with people, send electronic and telephone subscription reminders, and offer readers your services and assistance. Let’s say the newspaper itself will issue a subscription for them after receiving funds for the editor’s card. Difficult? Of course, it is troublesome. But for some reason, the insurance company can remind me of the need to extend the term of the car insurance a month or two in advance? So should we.
Some newsrooms will enter into a separate contract with Ukrposhta to organize subscriptions through post offices and mail carriers. The post office has the right to charge a fee for such registration (for the next year, the specified amount is UAH 20 per copy). In this regard, there is no need to issue subscription catalogs, for which editors are charged almost a thousand hryvnias per index twice a year.
So, the main contract is for the delivery of newspapers. According to it, editors undertake to deliver only officially registered editions to Ukrposhta for delivery to subscribers. No more conditions! The number of pages, double number or single, format and color, with an advertising tab or without, is the editor’s business. The post office determines the delivery rate based on only two parameters: the weight of the publication and the delivery conditions. Everything is clear with the weight, and the terms of delivery are the obligations that the post office undertakes, taking into account the specific situation. Suppose newspapers are delivered to subscribers’ homes in cities and regional centers or even in individual villages. In that case, it will be charged with one fee. If the mobile branches deliver the newspaper only to a community or to a local store, then the price is different. But each subscriber should know for which delivery they paid the post office.
By the way, in the tariffs for the delivery of regional publications, which Mr. Smilianskyi ignores for the second year and arbitrarily sets the amount, the cost of delivering the newspaper to the subscriber – processing in the communications department and delivery – was 55-61%. So, everyone who receives no newspaper from mail carriers today must get a return of at least UAH 2.6 per issue.
Of course, the tariff for the delivery of newspapers – all its specific options – must be economically justified, honestly calculated, and made public. Having such a tariff, Ukrposhta can, for example, decide to reduce the tariff considering that the newspaper is a special product, for example, by 5, 10, or 20%, at the expense of reserves. And having the final and real conclusion of Ukrposhta, the editors through the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) can apply for a targeted grant to the state and foreign donors and, with joint efforts, achieve a reduction in the delivery tariff for all newspapers and with minimal loss for Ukrposhta.
A separate issue is subscription termination. The situation is quite common today, and it may get even more complicated. It lies in the fact that a subscriber who does not receive the newspaper they subscribed to demands from the post office to return the money (they paid them – they also want a refund from them). The post office will not refuse them but will return the money for the subscription at the expense of the editors and will also take an interest for the service.
In order to prevent this from happening, the subscription contract and the delivery contract must specify that the subscriber decides exclusively with the editors to refuse the subscription. If the subscriber’s claims are substantiated, the newsroom will provide a refund for the subscription, and the post office will refund him for the delivery.
These are my suggestions regarding the relationship between editors, subscribers, and mail. I am aware that they still need to be “worked out,” and in the end they will add trouble to the editors. But, agree, the situation with Ukrposhta should be put in place, taking into account the real possibilities of the post itself and for the interests of readers and editors. Everyone should win, and the first thing is the information security of the country.
Yosyp Burcho, editor-in-chief of Press-Kuriyer newspaper,
member of NUJU Auditing Commission
Odesa
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