Is it a luxury to have mail delivered six days a week to every address in the nation? What’s known as universal mail service may seem like a citizen’s right stemming from the United States Postal Service (USPS) monopoly on delivery of mail, but it also might become a thing of the past.

An economy in recession, rising fuel costs and the diversion of mail to electronic means are all important factors in the USPS’s financial problems.

One solution under consideration is the reduction of six-day delivery, particularly in rural areas where the cost is high for the volume of mail delivered. This has already happened in some small towns.

The National Newspaper Association  (NNA) has expressed concern over this option. Newspaper delivery outside of the local area is slow to many areas and publishers across the country continue to lose subscriptions when readers aren’t content to wait a week or two for delivery. Increases in automated sorting and consolidation of large postal facilities seem to result in slower delivery for newspapers in several parts of the country.

Means of communication continue to change rapidly—always improving but causing problems at the same time.

The NNA believes the monopoly will have to be relaxed if mail service is curtailed. Private companies must be given the opportunity to fill the gap, which, of course, will only hurt USPS revenue even more.