Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Time Warner and the Postal Regulatory Commission

Postal rates will be going up soon, not just for first class postage, but for periodicals as well. But while the rates for large circulation magazines are only going up 10%, those for smaller magazines are going up 30%.

According to this story, Time Warner made the recommendations to the Postal Regulatory Commission who then used them to base their proposed changes to the Postal Services Board of Governors without public input.

Given that Time Warner owns People, Sports Illustrated, and a host of other top selling magazines, it certainly has an interest in keeping its postal rates down, but by working to raise that of its smaller competitors (allegedly) is it using insider connections to make the playing field uneven?

Is this agency capture?