Anyone get the newspaper delivered to them?

[Budweiser John]

We haven’t taken the local paper for at least 30 years and I only know one local neighbor who still does.
Motor route delivery was a joke as the delivery person would fling the paper out of his open car window at 50 miles an hour to land wherever in the mud, snow, or rain. Treaking a 1000 feet to the end of the drive way to retrieve soggy unreadable biased news of questionable quality simply doesn’t cut it.
For better or worse, several electronic news feeds gives me all the news I need and as for retail shopping ads, forget it. There is more on line product information than could be printed in a months worth of newspapers.
B. John

 

[stuckmotor]

The paper here used to arrive at around 4:00 AM. I think I heard the paper man at around 2:00 AM the other morning but, I'm not sure. We let the subscription drop after my invalid mother didn't read it anymore. After about a year they offered it to us at half price.

 

[MossRoad]

A lot of consolidation in the newspaper business lately. Lots of layoffs in newsrooms in Dallas, Houston and Austin and San Antonio. Half of what you read in the San Antonio express news is from Houston and vice versa.

Used to the major city papers had a Capitol bureau in Austin with experienced and distinctive reporters who all had a different insight on happenings at the Capitol. 鉄coops were important and sources carefully cultivated and guarded.

Newsrooms were staffed by people who knew the city well and had a high level of insight. All of that seems to be consolidated now and some one in another state may be writing a story on things going on in the Texas capitol from notes or pool sources. Terrible way to pretend to deliver 渡ews?

.

What a lot of people also don't know is that their local TV newscast isn't really done in their town.

The on-the-street reporters are in your local town, but your new anchors and weather staff may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

 

[hawkeye08]

When we moved out here 25 years ago, the mailbox was 1/2 mile away, down at the highway, paper would not deliver to house even though they said they would. After having the paper thrown out along the highway near the mailbox for a week, we would call up and cancel. Every few years, we would try again. The mail delivery was moved to county road in front of the house, so we tried the paper again, still thrown along the highway (but no mailboxes there anymore)...

We finally got the paper delivered to a paperbox at the end of the driveway by our mailbox and got the paper daily for many years... we put it on vacation hold one time a few years ago and never restarted it.. delivery driver hounded me a few times, but I just told him we were not ready to get the paper again.. then last year my wife got a advertisement for the Sunday paper for $10 per year (yes, per year). We take it but it is much smaller than years past, only a few ads normally, exceptions for black Friday. It is delivered between 7:30 and 8:30am most Sundays. We are near the end of the paper route so if anything happens (weather, vehicle problems, etc), we are delayed. Paper delivery guy is 60+, chain smokes and drives older Ford Explorers. He ran without reverse for several months a few years ago, had to turn around in front of my shop because he couldn't back up. He makes enough to buy smokes and gas perhaps..

The management at the paper changed a few years ago, but the reporters are still liberal mostly.

 

[MossRoad]

Winston Salem Journal.

I understand the reasons you gave, and as you mentioned, none of it excuses poor customer service, however it just irritates me that the paper said I should have it no later than 0730, added I should have a paperbox put up within 72 hours, and yet neither has ever happened.

The paper really hasn't started out on a good foot with me as they also had a billing error the first day I signed up (they found out 3 days later when I called).

The reality is the only reason why I want the paper to come on a "regular" time is for my dad. He's still a little sore from his back procedure, and he wants to walk out to the mailbox for exercise, and although he doesn't get up as early as he use to, he will take a walk out for the paper and he just never knows when he should go. It's not a hop skip and a jump for him down to the mailbox anymore.

Now, what really drives me bat****e crazy IS the gas station. You run out of the daily newspaper every day by 0900, I really want to know the reason why you wouldn't bring more papers to see if you can sell more.

The reality is if the gas station wouldn't keep running out of papers so early, my dad (and myself) wouldn't mind just driving up to the gas station in the morning, and I wouldn't of signed up for a delivery to begin with.

Your paper is currently owned by Berkshire Hathaway Media and it's been on the decline since the early 2000's. It's most likely not produced anywhere near you. And I'd guess their circulation department isn't, either. When you call the customer service line, it's probably a corporate call center, or, also likely, a farmed out service to a genearic call center in some other part of the country.

Honest to goodness, many newspapers have employed a company that runs an algorithm where they plug in all of their current subscribers, how much they pay for subscription(there's multiple payment schedules and tables), how much it costs to produce the paper, how much it costs to deliver the paper, etc...

Then that algorithm determines how many people will keep their subscription or drop the subscription due to price increases, poor service, etc... and they know that if they drop X amount of customers each month, they'll still be money ahead VS the cost of redelivery, phone labor, printing extra copies to have on hand for redelivery, etc... so sorry, but if you drop our service, it'll save us money.

You get the idea what I'm getting at....

No matter how you and I see it, and we see it that customer service is the key to survival, the fact is most newspapers can no longer afford to give good customer service.

About the only papers that are making it are smaller, local papers with a niche market for local coverage of when people are hatched, matched and dispatched, local sports, local politics, and local features. The rest are just on life support, constantly consolidating and trying to eliminate duplication of services to save money.

 

[Sigarms]

Your paper is currently owned by Berkshire Hathaway Media and it's been on the decline since the early 2000's. It's most likely not produced anywhere near you. And I'd guess their circulation department isn't, either. When you call the customer service line, it's probably a corporate call center, or, also likely, a farmed out service to a genearic call center in some other part of the country.

Honest to goodness, many newspapers have employed a company that runs an algorithm where they plug in all of their current subscribers, how much they pay for subscription(there's multiple payment schedules and tables), how much it costs to produce the paper, how much it costs to deliver the paper, etc...

Then that algorithm determines how many people will keep their subscription or drop the subscription due to price increases, poor service, etc... and they know that if they drop X amount of customers each month, they'll still be money ahead VS the cost of redelivery, phone labor, printing extra copies to have on hand for redelivery, etc... so sorry, but if you drop our service, it'll save us money.

You get the idea what I'm getting at....

No matter how you and I see it, and we see it that customer service is the key to survival, the fact is most newspapers can no longer afford to give good customer service.

About the only papers that are making it are smaller, local papers with a niche market for local coverage of when people are hatched, matched and dispatched, local sports, local politics, and local features. The rest are just on life support, constantly consolidating and trying to eliminate duplication of services to save money.

Perhaps it hasn't been produced anywhere near me, but I use to drive by this building almost every day when I worked in Winston...

Winston-Salem Journal building sold to local development group | Local News | journalnow.com

Honestly, I always assumed the paper was printed there.

That said...

Winston-Salem Journal - Wikipedia

Might just be better off getting dad a laptop with a big screen and get the news from there...

 

[two_bit_score]

What a lot of people also don't know is that their local TV newscast isn't really done in their town.

The on-the-street reporters are in your local town, but your new anchors and weather staff may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away.

Right. It’s all about the bottom line. Always was but just quicker and more exact ways to measure it have been developed. All of the human element has been taken out. Sad.

 

[two_bit_score]

Perhaps it hasn't been produced anywhere near me, but I use to drive by this building almost every day when I worked in Winston...

Winston-Salem Journal building sold to local development group | Local News | journalnow.com

Honestly, I always assumed the paper was printed there.

That said...

Winston-Salem Journal - Wikipedia

Might just be better off getting dad a laptop with a big screen and get the news from there...

Get him a small laptop and a big monitor. When he gets the hang of it he will like it better. I can relate to his affinity to reading a paper with coffee every morning.

When I was a kid in Houston we got the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post at our house. Morning paper and evening paper. I致e always been a news junkie.

One of my early jobs was working in the Sgts. Clipping Service in the Texas Lege. We clipped articles from members home town papers and delivered them to their offices every day. Read papers from all over the state. Took me too long because I would get interested in too many articles.


TBS

 

[MossRoad]

Perhaps it hasn't been produced anywhere near me, but I use to drive by this building almost every day when I worked in Winston...

Winston-Salem Journal building sold to local development group | Local News | journalnow.com

Honestly, I always assumed the paper was printed there.

That said...

Winston-Salem Journal - Wikipedia

Might just be better off getting dad a laptop with a big screen and get the news from there...

Your paper appears to be printed at a BH Media Group printing facility in the Winston-Salem area.

BH Media Group Publishing Solutions : BHMG Publishing Solutions : Introduction

BH Media owns 32 papers and prints them from 11 different printing plants, along with contracting printing for over 100 other 3rd party newspapers.

What many newspapers will do is they'll make offers to print smaller papers for them. The management at the smaller papers (heck, at larger ones' too, as last year Dayton contracted with Indianapolis to print their paper for them) realize they can't afford to keep their own presses.

Newspaper printing presses need at least 2-3 people to run them(depending on machine age), a couple maintenance people, and literarily EAT ELECTRICITY when they run. If you have a circulation of, say, 50,000, and your press can run 40,000 copies per hour, well, your press is only running an hour and fifteen minutes... most papers have an early print and a late print. The early print is the dated stuff, the features, comics, etc... that gets stuffed with the ads. It's run earlier in the day and sent to the inserting department to get ads inserted and then bundled up for distribution. The late print is local news, sports, obits, etc... that gets printed off at the last minute to be as up-to-date as possible. It gets bundled up for distribution and is sent out on the same trucks as the early print. The carries pick them up at distribution points and assemble the packages.

So, at best, your 40,000 CPH press is running maybe 2.5 hours per day. You have to keep about 8-10 people on board as full-time employees, pay the electric bill to run the press, pay the electric bill to keep the building climate controlled, pay the electric bill to keep the newsprint storage area climate controlled, pay a staff of part-time workers to run the inserting machinery, pay electric for that, pay taxes on all the equipment and facilities for an operation that runs 2.5 hours per day on the press and maybe 4 hours on the inserting equipment..... plus drivers, trucks, and warehouse locations for distribution.....

Printing consolidation just makes sense from a business standpoint.

So many papers have sold their presses and outsourced printing.

The proplem with outsourced printing is there are earlier deadlines to meet, so late breaking news and and sports stories are not getting into the next day's paper. The paper has to be printed earlier in the evening so that it can get trucked back to the home location for distribution, or to accommodate press time on the outsourcer's presses if they have many customers.

Whew! :laughing:

 

[Turbys_1700]

Our local Hickory Daily Record is owned by the same group and printed in Winston I believe. They do print the local sports and such and run a few local news items but it is mostly UP and AP stuff that any paper can print. Sorta sad to see the consolidation like it is. By the time the news is printed it is outdated. We had a lock down at the college I teach a year ago or so at and within 2 minutes it was all over the area through twitter. Technology is a great thing but it is still somewhat sad to see things that we used to do and somewhat cherish change.