The blog posts (both Cory’s and the original) talk about how postmasters could send mail for free, but all of the example envelope images clearly have stamps on them and seem to have been mailed by the advertisers themselves. (The example envelopes do have instructions to the postmaster to redirect the mail to someone else if the mail is unclaimed or undeliverable.)
Also, Cory’s post makes different claims than the original blog post:
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Cory says “postmasters could send each other letters for free”, but the original post says “Postmasters in those days were allowed to send and receive Post Office business mail for free” and doesn’t specifically say it had to be to or from another postmaster.
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The original post says many postmasters abused their ability “by engaging in some other occupation on the side using the free mail privilege”. Cory seems to have transformed that into saying advertisers “bribed” postmasters to “forward packets of mail to one another to pass on to townspeople” and “the industry thrived by exploiting a zero-rated piece of public infrastructure”.
