I get the feeling organizations no longer want the public to contact them via traditional postal mail. (No more "Keep those cards and letters coming in").
I suspect this is largely due to the antrax attacks of Sept 11, but possibly other factors as well (perhaps fear of walk-in attacks.)
I base this on:
1) Magazines traditionally have a "masthead" where the editors and senior staff are listed. Traditionally, the addresses of the magazine were clearly listed there as well (letters to the editor, subscriptions, ads, etc.) I notice now no addresses are shown, and maybe some are shown elsewhere in very fine print.
2) Film studios used to have their addresses listed but some no longer do. Particuarly, the WB TV network refuses postal mail and has everything returned to the sender.
Some organizations -- but by no means all -- offer email or web comment screens. But these have limitations:
a) A certain percentage of mail is "crank" -- obvious nonsense, etc. But writing a traditional letter still requires some effort and postage. Email is easy and one can generate a great many crank emails at the push of a button. Thus, recipients are flooded with much more crank mail than in the past, which they have to weed through. There's a greater chance a legitimate letter will be bypassed.
b) Lost in the shuffle: There's a far higher response rate to traditional mail than email/web comments. Sometimes electronic means never get delivered. Other times it's lost at the recipient's site. Sometimes it's sent to someone incompetent to deal with it. (On a number of occassions I've emailed an organization with a specific question that was not addressed on their web page. Their answer was to check the web page which of course was of no help.)
c) Lost with spam: Legitimate letters get mixed up with spam.
d) A piece of paper is durable: A paper letter or postcard is a tangible item. An email is a fleeting image on a screen. If 10,000 people write a TV network urging to keep a TV show, they'll have bags of mail sitting on the floor and that will say something to them. If
10,000 people email them, the server will probably crash and most will never even make it through. For places with less volumes, that piece of paper sits on someone's desk and calls for attention. It's a lot easier psychologically to DEL an email than throw out a piece of paper.