Customer Support Ruling

In County Rates – Periodicals
Updated January 2001

PS-069 (707.11.3)

This Customer Support Ruling discusses the standards for mailing both subscriber and nonsubscriber copies at the In-County rates of postage.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 707.11.3, provides that In-County rates apply to subscribers' copies of any issue of a Periodicals publication (except a requester publication) when they are entered within the county of publication for delivery to addresses within that county if either of the following conditions is met:

·         The total paid circulation of such issue is less than 10,000 copies.

·         The number of copies of such issue distributed within the county of publication is at least one more than 50% of the paid circulation of such issue.

DMM 707.11.3.3 prescribes that during a calendar year, the total number of nonsubscribers copies mailed at the In-County rates may not exceed 10 percent of the number of subscribers' copies of the publication mailed at the In-County rates.

A post office which is located in county "A" has a route that extends into county "B".  An original Periodicals entry has been authorized for a general publication in the city served by the post office.  All subscribers' copies which are mailed at that post office and which are addressed for delivery within county "A" are subject to the In-County Periodicals rates provided that there is compliance with the provisions of DMM 707.11.3.1.  However, all subscribers' copies which are addressed for delivery in county "B" are subject to the outside-of-county Periodicals rates.  The fact that the copies addressed for delivery in county "B" are delivered by carriers whose routes emanate from a post office in county "A" has no bearing on this determination.

(Signed)
Anita J. Bizzotto
Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
Washington DC 20260-3436