The United States Postal Service reported new service delivery performance metrics for the first week of the fiscal second quarter showing service performance holding steady for First-Class Mail, Marketing Mail and Periodicals. Consistent with the rest of the shipping industry, the organization experienced some minor delays in both ground and air transportation during the week of January 1-7. The Postal Service continues to address impacts to last mile delivery due to availability challenges due to COVID-19 cases and inclement weather events including winter storms on the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Second quarter-to-date service performance scores covering the period Jan.1 through Jan. 7 included: *First-Class Mail: 90 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, an improvement of .37 percentage points from the first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 91.7 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a slight decrease of .46 percentage points from the first quarter. Periodicals: 81.1 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, with an improvement of .37 percentage points from the first quarter.

Hearst Magazines announced that Runner’s World is the recipient of two prestigious awards, a Pulitzer Prize and a National Magazine Award, both in the Feature Writing category, for “Twelve Minutes and a Life,” a story about the tragic killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. The announcement was made by Hearst Magazines President Debi Chirichella. “Twelve Minutes and a Life,” published in Runner’s World’s September/October 2020 issue and written by contributor Mitchell S. Jackson, examines racism in running in America and recounts the last 12 minutes of the young Black man’s life as he was chased and fatally shot while jogging near his home. “Hearst has a long history of important reporting and storytelling in serving our communities,” said Hearst President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Swartz. “Runner’s World’s remarkable piece, covering a crucial topic and a devastating incident in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, is a significant example of our duty as journalists to tell these stories. Congratulations to Mitchell S. Jackson and the Runner’s World team on these well-deserved honors from two of the most prestigious awards in our industry.”

Can you imagine a future without paper? As it turns out, few can. Despite advancing technology and talk of a paperless society, paper still plays a role in our imagined future. Perhaps that’s because paper is one of only a few truly sustainable products — it’s renewable, recyclable and can be managed sustainably. In the United States and Canada, Domtar has been a leader in advancing the circular economy of paper products by recycling and using wood waste to create renewable energy, and by promoting the recyclability of paper-based products and packaging, which will allow us to continue making products sustainably well into the future. Pop culture points to the continued presence of paper in our daily lives for decades to come, with paper-based products seen in unexpected places on screens of all sizes.