By DAVID GREEN 

Newspapers across the country are losing subscribers due to poor delivery by the U.S. Postal Service. A reader recently informed us that delivery to the Camden area—a 30-minute drive west—takes several days. He’s not renewing his subscription; he’ll just read the paper at work in Morenci.

A Toledo subscriber—less than 50 miles to the east— told us last week that she recently received three issues in the same week. One paper arrived Monday, another on Tuesday and the third one on Wednesday.

A reader in Coldwater wrote to tell us she often fails to receive a paper in the week it was published and sometimes two arrive at the same time.

All addressed papers are taken to the post office each Wednesday. They leave the offices in Morenci and in Lyons that afternoon and then...? That’s the mystery. Some papers must spend a lot of time waiting in the Toledo office. Others must be collecting dust in Lansing or Jackson.

We wish we had an answer to delivery problems, but we don’t. As reported a few months ago, an attempt by us to determine the holdup for a subscriber led to a response from a postal service employee of something like this: “Sorry, we don’t know what the problem is.”

The Michigan Press Association is surveying all of its members to gauge the severity of delivery problems and the effect on circulation.

There’s no indication that improvement is on the way. Readers with slow and erratic delivery should apparently expect more of the same and newspapers will continue to lose subscribers.

Complaining to your local post office will probably do no good because that’s generally not the source of the problem. The only recourse we suggest is to ask for a complaint card and let your problem be known, again and again.