USPS Periodicals will require cross-strap bundles for mail processing, effective July 1

Jun 17, 2025

New Rules for Flats Bundles will detail interpreting the new ruling on bundling, updates, and how to comply.

This is a friendly reminder that by July 1, 2025, USPS mailers of Periodicals newspapers and Marketing Mail shoppers or other flat newspaper-sized mailings will have to cross-strap bundles that go through mail processing. Plastic straps or their equivalents will be required. Rubber bands, string and twine will no longer be allowed.

USPS announced the change after several months of deliberations with National Newspaper Association and other mailing organizations. USPS said it was making the change to diminish bundle breakage in mail processing.

Below are some resources, including a link to contact the NNA Postal Hotline. 

  • MHPI Special Sessions: New Rules for Flats Bundles: An archive of the first training program of the Max Heath Postal Institute's 2025 series, Special Sessions. Program 1: New Rules for Flats Bundles will detail interpreting the new ruling on bundling, updates, and how to comply. Click here (NNA members).
  • USPS issues final bundling rule: The final USPS Bundling Rule was published this morning in the Federal Register. The effective date is July 1, 2025. Click here.
  • Some alternatives exist for situations where plastic strapping isn't practical: By July 1, 2025, mailers of Periodicals newspapers and Marketing Mail shoppers or other flat newspaper-sized mailings will have to cross-strap bundles that go through mail processing. Plastic straps or their equivalents will be required. Rubber bands, string and twine will no longer be allowed. Click here (NNA members).
  • NNA Postal Hotline: The hotline can help with interpretations of postal rules, entering mail properly, slow service, Periodicals permits, and unsnarling a host of other conundrums that arise when newspapers (and their shoppers/TMCs) are in the mail. Click here.