Postal stamps take a licking from Internet

<p>Just as they switched from horse and buggy to automobiles for transportation 100 years ago, Americans are now relegating pen and paper to the scrap heap of history.</p><p>As the nation's preference for fast and easy online communication expands, the fortunes of the U.S. Postal Service — which handles nearly 40 percent of the world's mail — are falling.</p><p>“It's all about e-mail,” said Rae Brodjeski, postmaster in the Sonoma County hamlet of Annapolis.</p><p>The seemingly inevitable march toward a paperless society has her tiny post office on track toward a shutdown as the 236-year-old Postal Service attempts to staunch a multi-billion-dollar cascade of financial losses.</p><p>Just five years ago, the post office handled 213 billion pieces of mail, its peak flow. The number dropped last year to 171 billion pieces, a nearly 20 percent decline.</p><p>With broadband connectivity rising, the post office's slump is expected to continue, with mail volume dropping to 150 billion pieces, or less, by 2020, the service says.</p><p>“The Internet's fast, always-on connection makes it a stronger alternative medium for the delivery of entertainment, information and communication,” said the Postal Service's annual survey of mail use released in April.</p><p>Back in 2000, there were about 5 million broadband subscribers in the U.S. and only 11 percent of household bill payments were made electronically, according to Postal Service reports.</p><p>Eight years later, there were close to 70 million broadband subscribers and more than a third of household bills (38 percent) were paid online.</p><p>Jane Simmonds, an Annapolis resident fighting the proposed closure of her community's 110-year old post office, said she pays bills online.</p><p>“Yes, of course,” she said. “It's the easiest way — it's automatic.”</p><p>Attorney Barry Vogel, battling the service's plan to abandon Ukiah's downtown post office, said he still does business by snail mail. “I want my 44 cents where my mouth is,” he said.</p><p>But first class mail, which generates more than half of the post office's revenue, dwindled by more than 25 billion pieces (also 25 percent) from 2001 to 2010.</p><p>“First class was our bread and butter for 230 years or so,” said Jim Wigdel, Postal Service spokesman in San Francisco.</p><p>But they don't make many buggy whips any more, either.</p>