A Note To Readers Who Block Flyer Delivery By Canada Post

Jeff Green | Dec 13, 2023

A couple of weeks ago, Canada Post began letting local post offices and community newspaper publishers, that as of January 8, 2024, they would be changing their policy regarding the delivery of community newspapers.

Until now, when Canada Post customers inform their local post office that they do not want to receive admail in their post box, they still received community newspapers.

As of January, if the community newspaper they receive has any flyers tucked inside it, the post office will no longer deliver it to them.

The Frontenac News goes out to 10 post offices in Frontenac County and Addington Highlands, and we include flyers in some of those newspapers, and that varies from week to week.

We have been talking to the post offices to find out how the new rules will work, and we are not completely clear on what will happen, but it is probable that most or all of our readers who have opted out of admail, will not receive the Frontenac News after our Christmas edition comes out next Thursday.

(The first edition of 2024 comes out on January 11, 2024, after the change in Canada Post rules)

Some of the people who no longer gets the paper in their mailbox will be happy about this change, but if you are reading this you are probably not one of them.

One option for those who want to keep getting the paper will be to pull themselves off the “no admail” list, but the trade-off is that they will have to put up with all of the flyers that they do not want.

We will be looking at alternative outlets for papers, but that will take time and we need to deal with logistics around delivery to make that happen.

We are starting to have conversations with each of the post offices that handle out papers to see how many of their customers will be affected, and to see if their is any way to make newspapers available to everyone who wants one.

News Media Canada, a newspaper industry association that the Frontenac News is a member of, has put out a call to Canada Post to reverse their decisions to make the change, noting that it is a threat to the viability of local newspapers at a sensitive time for the industry.

At the Frontenac News, we have taken a look at our own flyer delivery business to see how important it is to our own bottom line.

We deliver flyers, in some communities, for a number of large retailers, including: Foodland, Loblaw, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, and RONA.

We also deliver and print flyers for local businesses for small runs periodically throughout the year

With the exception of the Cloyne/Northbrook are which can receive up to 4 flyers from us on a given week, there is rarely more that 1 flyer in the newspapers that go out to most of our readers.

But when we looked at the revenue and cost of our flyer business, we see that while it is not a major source of revenue for us, it is an important way to help cover part of our largest single expense, mailing costs. We are not, at this point, able to forego that revenue.

We thank those who are impacted by this for their understanding, and we will work to find a way to get our newspaper to everyone in Frontenac County, Tay Valley and Addington Highands, who wants one.