USPS Rescue Plan: More Junk Mail!

The US Postal Service is like a damsel in distress. Severe distress. The rise of email and the Great Recession, coupled with bad management and its high labor (and labor's retirement) costs have caused the institution to be near collapse.

But, like the analogy goes, there's a white knight! Here's how the Post Office plans to rescue itself from bankruptcy: more junk mail for everyone!

Many consumers are irked by the catalogs, credit-card pitches and other "junk mail" they receive. But the U.S. Postal Service loves it—and wants to deliver more.

The agency, beset by historic losses and a plummet in first-class mail, is running promotions, easing rules and planning television and radio ads to encourage more businesses to send pitches by standard mail, the official term for bulk mailings used by marketers to prospect for customers.

"What we want to do is to make standard mail more interesting for customers so we can grow the total volume," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview. "We don't call it junk mail—it's a lucrative avenue for anyone who wants to reach customers."