Daily newspapers are spending about $1 billion at the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), according to a recent survey from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

In 2006, dailies spent more than $972 million on USPS postage, growing from $901 million in 2005, and $700 million in 2002.

"Collectively, daily newspapers are a leading customer of the U.S. Postal Service and many of our member newspapers are the largest mailers in their local markets," according to NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm in a statement.

The NAA survey found that most newspaper spending is in the Standard Mail rate, which dailies use most heavily to deliver total market coverage (TMC) products to non-subscribers. Dailies spent about $785 million in that category in 2006 compared to $713 million in 2004, Editor & Publisher reported.

About half of the Standard Mail products mailed by dailies are entered at the USPS' local Destination Delivery Units. Nearly half of the products are distributed through high-density rates, and the others through saturation rates.

"The findings reinforce the importance of local entry and the partnership newspapers have with local postal delivery units to ensure that advertising products are delivered in a timely and efficient manner to meet the needs of a newspaper's advertising customers," NAA added.