From the United States Postal Service website:
“On January 27, 2013 the U.S. Postal Service® will implement a postage rate increase for all mail classes including First Class Mail®, Priority Mail and Express Mail along with many special services. First Class Letters (1 oz.) will increase by one cent to $0.46 from $0.45.”
Ho hum.
The fact that we barely noticed this increase illustrates how public relations, communications and, at the risk of being over-dramatic and clichéd, the world has changed. “Back in the day,” a postage rate increase was a big deal: it warranted long stories on the “nightly news” (another relic of an earlier era) and lots of chatter about increasing cost vs. increasing delays in receiving mail. Those of us in PR made frantic runs to the post office so we had enough postage to mail our clients’ press releases. Today’s increase: whatever.
If there had been an increase yesterday in other communications delivery methods – say, a Twitter functionality or a new Facebook feature – we would have read about it (endlessly, no doubt) and convened conversations about how it impacts our work and our clients’ communication. But this morning…. a one cent increase in stamps…?
Yeah, okay.