We’ve been seeing businesses built around hand-delivery of information disappearing nearly daily … and many of the rest are just barely hanging on.  Another venerable information-delivery institution may also become something our children vaguely remember.  The United States Postal Service is in such critical condition that without sweeping changes, it may not survive.

There was a time that the stock in the company that published the book of airline schedules was worth more than that of any particular airline company.  That book and that company don’t exist anymore.  How much longer will the Yellow Pages be printed?

The rapidity of information delivery and technology change is wreaking havoc upon many venerable institutions.  “Faster, cheaper, better” needs to become part of the USPS credo if the postal service is to last another 150 years.