The competition authority barred Omniva and Express Post from merging in the winter, citing the risk of monopolization. Then, Express Post stopped distributing newspapers to Viljandi, Pärnu, Tartu, and Tallinn, and Omniva took over.

The shift has been slow. Several Tallinn households have not received their newspapers in recent weeks.

Martin Shmutov, editor-in-chief of the daily Õhtuleht, said that Omniva has not learnt from its errors in Viljandi, despite the fact that the transition occurred there in early April; however, he is not concerned about cancellations as a result of this.

"I am even more worried about the overall reputational damage to all the publications, as people do not blame Omniva, they blame us," he said.

Õhtuleht now sends subscribers a compensation package from which they can choose what they want in exchange for damages. Shmutov said that that could have been avoided if the two postal services had merged.

"If it were up to me, I would have already submitted my resignation, but as Omniva is a government-owned company, nobody will submit their resignation there. We have no choice but to try to influence them," Shmutov said.

According to Omniva, there are several explanations for the concerns; in some cases, the correct addresses have not reached Omniva, or the keys to an apartment building, for example, may not have been given to Omniva by the previous postman, which had to be returned to the apartment association first.

Also, the acquisition of the postal services compelled Omniva to recruit new letter carriers. "During the summer, it was difficult to recruit someone to work in the early morning hours since we had to compete with all of the other job proposals on all of the markets," Kristi Unt, member of the Omniva management board, explained.

Omniva anticipates resolving the issues within a few weeks.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!