Newspaper delivery now lousy

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At the risk of sounding like a now departed member or even one who remains, we find newspaper delivery to be very unreliable these days.
It was once the case that you could rely upon your papers every morning without issue, but we have more recently found delivery to be unreliable and often quite late.
We take two local papers and the WSJ.
We could once depend upon all to be buried in the snow on the worst of mornings, but we know find that at least one day out of each week there is a delivery issue resulting in no papers, late papers or the wrong paper.
What's the deal with those tossing newspapers out of car windows these days?
Do these routes pay too little to attract reliable folks or is this just a generational thing where the guys now doing the delivery figure they're doing you a favor by delivering your papers?
 
It is now outsourced to contract drivers who have an unrealistic schedule to meet; they have to supply their own vehicles and insurance etc.

I looked @ it as a side job but decided it was fraught with many downsides and no upsides.

I was a carrier for the Harford Courant for years in the 1980's and knew all of my customers; those days are gone
 
Newspaper delivery? I have lived in a semi rural county in Maryland for 17 years. We have never gotten decent mail service. I routinely get mail for other people and they get my mail. I have called my Congress critter to complain and got a nice letter of apology from the postmaster with little improvement. Nowadays, when I get mail for another person, I drop it into an envelope and address it to my local postmaster. Letter addressed to the postmaster can be sent postage free.

So, a well paid government employee with great healthcare and retirement cannot be bothered to put mail for 10 Cherry Hill into the box marked 10, AND NOTHING CAN BE DONE.
boggles the mind :)
 
My paper is laying at my garage door by 06:00 every morning. Same carrier for 15 years. I realize I’m fortunate to have him.
 
I agree it is not very good for local paper now. Must have a new person. Missed days. Threw is in the running water by curb: water logged. This morning it was in the yard. So it is like they do not have throwing skills yet.

To pick up extra money in graduate school I delivered NYT in many gated neighbourhoods. Arrived at 3 am to do my route in my Pinto. The hard part was shifting, throwing, and remembering the route. I did OK despite my dslyexia, but drove in a somewhat unsafe speed in neighbourhoods to get my route done. Of course I would get mixed up at times and get trapped by those darn gates like a mouse in maze.
grin.gif


So I agree service sucks these days, not the easiest job to do correctly.
 
In my area, it appears the contracted person delivers more than one paper...and newspapers are more or less an anomaly to begin with if your age demographic dips much below 55 years old. If they're delivering more than one paper in a larger area with more changes, cancellations, and sudden requirements than previously existed, then I can almost understand it.

I subscribed to the local paper until fairly recently and I always knew there was contractor switch or temporary replacement because my neighbor got my local paper and I got her regional one. The concept of a "paper boy" often isn't too accurate these days so their salary level and if they're millennials or not probably doesn't factor in as much as you'd like. Print media is either changing or barely hanging on in my area and sometimes delivery supporting it seems to reflect that idea.
 
A bit of chicken and egg...I think there's probably multiple factors depending on your paper/region and if you have what can be described as a contractor versus a kid with a canvas bag that does a specific neighborhood. I was only one of two people that subscribed to a newspaper in my townhouse complex...which is 14 units.
 
Please have a solution in mind when coming up with a problem. What about you getting up at 2-3 am and delivering the papers yourself, and for the smallest route possible. Earn a little extra money that way to boot. Earn an extra roughly $50/day doing this.

My mom cut her delivery down to every Sunday. And she will prob keep it this way.
 
Yes! It stinks. I subscribe to the Indianapolis Star which is owned by Gannett. It seems as if they want to get out of the hardcopy business. I complain online 1-2 times per week filing for a credit on my bill. It has to be killing them. It gets better for a while then falls apart again. The contract couriers suck.
 
I delivered them by walking; back when most people got a paper. now? what's a newspaper?
I cannot imagine a business model that justifies printing and delivery; at least in most of the country. perhaps in some portions of the country where a tangible paper is still desired. (Florida? AZ?)

but to answer your questions: I imagine, in most markets, that delivery is so few and far between that it's hard to pay enough to get good help.
 
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FIL had a newsagency in a rural town up until about 10 years ago.

He had to see off the paper boys when he had to put them on the books, and pay them via transfer to their tax file number listed account, and pay worker's compensation. Up to then, it was cash and tips.

Had to get a wrapping machine to plastic wrap the papers that he delivered, per his contract with the paper companies....no biggie, but couldn't afford TWO wrapping machines, so the one was mission critical to his daily routine. The occasional morning where there was a couple hours of repairs made for a cranky town.

We ran the match, and he never broke even on his deliveries with the contract sum that the paper companies applied for delivery.

Then there were the customers who wnated to very their deliveries on a day by day basis...not a week's worth of holidays here and there, but virtually daily...plus "can you wrap the new idea in MY paper" added a degree of difficulty rather than batch processing.
 
My mom has no economic need to deliver newspapers nor anything else nor do I.
I pay to have them delivered and I expect them to arrive.
Lower socio-economic class types might not need papers and the young and dumb may not either.
Most educated folks who are worldly enough not to have their faces glued to a phone like print. We do.
If print media can't reliably deliver their output than they only hasten their own demise.
I also don't intend to hear that I can always get the online version.
If I want only the online version, I can get that for free with no need to pay for a subscription.
 
I pick up a coffee and paper at McDonalds 4 days per week. Half price paper at Mickey Dees also. So a $1.50, coffee included. And paper too. I like to be out and about early in the am and I'll grab a paper at a variety of places. Not sitting at home waiting for paper to arrive then having to pay a bill each month...no thank you.
 
Seriously the two rags they have here they call News Papers are not worth the time it would take to read them. Stopped getting the paper over thirty years ago!
 
I just read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Thought it funny that even though people colonized the moon, there were still printed newspapers. I'm surprised newspapers are still around today. Seems archaic to have to print a physical paper when the information is available digitally.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27

Lower socio-economic class types might not need papers and the young and dumb may not either.
Most educated folks who are worldly enough not to have their faces glued to a phone like print. We do.


LOL. Ok.
 
One of my favorite things in the world is waking up,walking outside to get my paper,bringing it inside,unwrapping it,and reading it cover to cover with a hot cup of coffee.
 
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