Newspapers Fighting Deal on Postage for Ad Fliers

Having confronted significant declines in advertising revenue, the newspaper industry was dealt another blow last week when the Postal Regulatory Commission approved a plan granting potentially deep discounts to one of the nation’s largest direct marketers. The deal, with Valassis Communications, will account for a small amount of revenue for the multibillion-dollar operations of the post office, but it could lure more advertising away from newspapers, which earn more than $1 billion a year from the kind of inserts that Valassis distributes, typically in weekend editions, according to the Newspaper Association of America.