Update: It seems the situation is easing further. Mark and I both received our March issues on 3/9/21. This is still a couple of weeks late, but better than 2 months late. – HCA
Howdy folks. The past couple of months have been interesting to say the least. On one hand, it is somewhat flattering that our subscribers enjoy KNIFE Magazine so much, that a delay in the new issue’s arrival sparks a wave of people reaching out inquiring about the delay. As we mentioned last month, things at the Post Office are beyond backed up. Christmas gifts I sent Priority Mail on 12/6 didn’t arrive in Ohio until 1/18. It is even worse for catalog/magazine class mail.
KNIFE Magazine Publisher Mark Zalesky issued the following statement last month:
At present the U.S. Postal Service is experiencing extremely long delays, which are affecting the delivery of KNIFE Magazines all across the country. Your KNIFE Magazines are still being printed and mailed on time, but they are NOT being delivered in a timely manner. It’s not just us, every print publication in the U.S. is experiencing delays of this sort.
According to the United States Postal Service, “we are running at least 3 weeks late on deliveries. With 19,000 workers out on COVID quarantine on any given week it is having a serious impact on the mail.” Coupled with a significant increase in the number of packages in particular within the system, the Post Office has been unable to keep up. There are many reports of multiple tractor-trailers sitting unsorted at postal facilities around the country.
What we are actually seeing is much worse than what USPS claims — delivery times of 7-8 weeks and even more, for magazines that normally take 1-2 weeks to arrive. We’re seeing magazines shipped to foreign countries arrive before they do here in the U.S.
At present these delays have affected the January and February issues, and we anticipate that the March issue will be delayed as well. We do not know how long it will take for the U.S. Postal Service to get back on a normal schedule.
We simply do not have sufficient extra magazines to send all of our subscribers a second issue before the delayed issues arrive. What we are asking everyone to do is to please be patient while the U.S. Postal Service tries to get caught up. After we are confident that all of the issues in the USPS system have been delivered, we will begin replacing missing issues on an as-needed basis.
But have faith KNIFE Magazine Subscribers. Your issues are on the way, and or contacts are reporting that they are finally beginning to show up. My January issue arrived on Wednesday, while the office copy arrived yesterday. So it seems that the logjam is breaking loose.
In the mean time, to help tide everyone over, we are again putting a password protected digital copy up for print subscribers who do not have a Premium Online Membership ($19.95/yr standalone or $9.95/yr for existing Print Subscribers) Those that do have Premium can see every issue of Knife World (1975-2015) and KNIFE Magazine (2015-Present) at any time by visiting The Vault——>Magazine Archives.
Click above to view the February 2021 issue of KNIFE Magazine. Password is: ThanksUSPS
Please drop us a note in the comments to let us know when you receive your issue. It would be a big help. Thanks.
For those still waiting on January. (Password is also ThanksUSPS)