Summary

We considered it to be of interest, not only with a view to the Single European Market from the end of 1992, to compare the different rates and regulations applied for newspaper mailing in various European countries. It is our aim also to provide the representatives of the national newspaper publishers’ associations a means by which they can indicate discrep- ancies in their negotiations with the postal authorities. Today, we are still a long way away from standardised European postal rates and regula- tions. What is allowed or even obligatory in one country may be prohibited in others, and similarly there exists a wide spread with regard to postal charges, with the United Kingdom at the top and Italy at the bottom of the scale. We have been most fortunate in obtaining the services of Georges Valko, Zofingen, Switzerland, for the preparation of this comparison and the penning of the study. He is an expert both on the topic concerned, as well as linguistically. It is no simple matter to deal with postal regulations, as they are phrased more like a book of law that is comprehensible only to legal experts than an instruction manual. One praiseworthy exception to this is the French postal service whose regulations are organised to enable even the "layman" to come to terms with the subject relatively quickly. Easily understandable, colourfully arranged and with illustrations to support the text, it may be considered a model among the European regulations. The study was accompanied by he technical expertise and mediation of the members of the IFRA Mailroom and Distribution Committee. We wish to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks both to the author as well as to these experts working in the background