The printing company of the Mercer Island Reporter is still pasting the mailing address label over written material in the lower section of the front page.

There must be a way to place the mailing address label on the very top of the first page, where there is plenty of empty space. We are subscribing to other publications and none of them is having this silly problem with their equipment.

If they have to replace their outdated labeling machine, so be it.

It would be hard to image that any of your customers is pleased with this customer-unfriendly sloppiness of the printing company.

I realize that your M.I. office has only limited influence over the decisions of Sound Publishing, Inc., but perhaps you can continue to pass on the feedback from your subscribers. Miracles have happened.

Eckhard Schipull

Editor’s Note: We have had many comments regarding the mailing label on the front page. Not only do they seem to cover valuable text and art, but they are often crooked.

What is going on?

First and foremost, we are bound by the many rules and regulations of the U.S. Postal Service, which dictates not only the size of the labels, but their exact position on the page.

The space set aside for the label covers a small photo and caption to preview a story that will appear on an inside page. The information and the photo are included in the later section, so nothing is left out.

We cannot leave the space blank because many of our papers are sold at newsstands without the labels.

Finally, the labeling machine at the press tends to ‘drift’ as the run progresses. Our press operators, some of the best in the business, are continually tweaking it to perform better.

We welcome your comments. E-mail them to editor@mi-reporter.com.