So I went to my PO today to mail some books. They had the PBS label, so they were already marked media mail.  The clerk said, "Did you know they just changed the rules for Media Mail?"  I said, "No..what did they change?"  She said, "Media mail can now only be used for educational purposes, not for entertainment."  And so I said, "I hadn't heard that.  Give those back to me until I figure it out.  Is it on the USPS website?"  She said, "I don't know...it should be...let me go ask my supervisor."   She came back after a few minutes and said that her supervisor told her the post office had received a letter saying that the rules had changed, but they hadn't "clarified" it yet, so the supervisor said to go ahead and mail the packages Media Mail until they get clarification.   So we mailed them.

Has anyone else been told this??  I looked around on the internet and the only thing I could find were some old discussions where people were not allowed to use Media Mail for video games and were told it could only be used for educational video games.

Books are considered educational. For all they know you could be sending out textbooks!

Talked to our postmaster twice this week and media mail rule changes weren't an issue. A lot of times the USPS talks about "proposed" changes that never get implemented (like stopping all mail service and closing POs on Saturdays that was proposed last March and never happened).  Unless they have it in writing for customers to see or a directive signed by the Postmaster General, it's not in place yet.

Honesty, the U.S.P.S should just eliminate Media Mail since they seem to hate it so dang much.

There's so much misinformation circulating, and the worst of it is started by those who work at the dang post office.

This new educational purpose media mail sounds like pure bogus. I can just imagine haggling with a postal worker over the merits of a book.

Um, yes, books are educational.  So yes, they qualify for media mail by those standards.

(I for one read to learn about new things, be they real people or places or fictional people or places.)

There was a recent Customer Support Ruling from the USPS having to do with computer games which determined that computer games are not eligible to be mailed as Media Mail:  http://pe.usps.com/text/CSR/PS-334.htm

Some postal personnel are apparently confused as to what this ruling means, but it currently applies only to computer/video games.

I saw a thread back in 2004 (another site)  that said media mail was for educational purposes only....maybe the memo was from that year and they just received it in the mail.

"maybe the memo was from that year and they just received it in the mail."

LOL Robin!