Digital Mail vs U.S. Postal Service

Note to Self

WNYC Studios

Self-improvement, Tech, Note, Npr, Education, Public, Wnyc, Manoush, York, To, New, Self, Radio, Business, Technology, Relationships, City, Society & Culture, Zomorodi, Newtechcity

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2014

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This plan went way beyond email. The small startup Outbox had done its homework on the role mail plays in our lives, on the value people place on a letter and a catalog, and they imagined what mail could become. The plan to reinvent postal delivery for the digital age had real promise, the founders thought. So did investors and many customers. It was a new age of mail. And then... well, the Postal Service didn't want to play nice.

In this episode:

The story of Outbox, a dream crushed. What it takes to innovate at the post office. How other countries from Sweden to Namibia have more digital-forward mail services than the U.S. The proposals for postal innovation that have a chance at happening.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friend, this is an episode of Note to Self, but from when we used to be called New Text City.
0:06.9	Same good content, just the old name. Enjoy.
0:10.3	When you go to the mailbox and you open it and then you get this stuff, you get the mail out because you have the bend over and there's a lot of mail.
0:22.7	You have to like get a big, like big handfuls of it. I think that's pretty fun. I think that's the finest part about it.
0:30.1	Yeah, there's nothing like getting good old-fashioned letter.
0:35.0	Too bad nobody actually sends them anymore and all we get is junk mail that goes straight into that other sorting center recycling.
0:42.8	Sorry kid.
0:45.3	Hi, it's Manou Simerode and you're listening to New Text City, the podcast about how technology is changing us.
0:52.3	This week we're looking at what the postal service could be and the story of Outbox, a tiny startup with a big postal dream to reimagine mail as we know it.
1:04.3	And this story is not a David and Goliath tale of a little guy, a slingshot and taking down a giant.
1:11.3	That's because in this story Goliath smushes David like a little bug. Goliath in this case is of course the US Postal Service.
1:20.3	A free delivery in the postal service now reaches millions of our citizens.
1:25.3	From its start in 1775, the USPS was always on the cutting edge. Whenever new technology debuted like the telegraph or the steam locomotive, it was quick to adapt.
1:38.3	But the last couple of decades have been a struggle and that's putting it very kindly.
1:43.3	The United States Postal Service ended its second quarter with a net loss of $1.9 billion as first-class mail volume.
1:51.3	Americans now send 25% less mail than they did 10 years ago. Pensions, regulations, fewer ways of making money.
2:00.3	It's almost like the US Postal Service is being funded by nostalgia rather than cash.
2:05.3	Low-hanging fruit for a hungry entrepreneur on the prowl, like Evan Bear.
2:11.3	My name is Evan Bear and I'm co-founder of Outbox.
2:15.3	Do you still call yourself that?
2:18.3	I don't know who asked.
2:20.3	Evan's company doesn't exist anymore.
	...

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