This article was originally published on Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative website and is republished here with permission.
Switching newspaper delivery from costly carriers to the U.S. Postal Service seemed like a no-brainer for Jordan Brechenser, president and publisher of Vermont News and Media. But things quickly got complicated, and that was before a local postmaster obtained an order of protection and moved to a new post office after a confrontation in a local bar.
Brechenser figured out how to obtain a postal permit, label and assemble the newspapers by mail route and drop them off in individual totes before 6 a.m. at local post offices, so they could arrive in readers’ mailboxes that same day.