Anyone get the newspaper delivered to them?

[ultrarunner]

When Dad was an ACE Oakland Tribune Dealer after 2 years at age 12 it was quite an accomplishment in the 1930's.

There were dozens that were ready to take your spot should you not "Deliver"

He turned over all the money he made to his Mom as things were really tight... except kept enough for the Saturday matinee at the Fairfax Theater...

Even years later when Dad was in business... people would remember him for his Maxwell Park Paper Route...

It taught him a lot about business and hard times at a very young age...

Later, when he gained notoriety as a Heavy Weight Boxer it was his hometown paper that kept the stories coming... almost always with a mention of his humble beginnings carrying the paper... it was quite a PR machine that happened by circumstances... all the way through his title as US Heavy Weight Boxing Champ.

Two scrap books of only newspaper clippings...

When Dad passed I went to the city editor seeing if the paper would do an obituary... didn't get very far until I pulled out one of the scrapbooks of Tribune Newspaper Clippings and Dad's plaque when he became an ACE Dealer...

My guess is Mom will keep getting the paper forever...

 

[k0ua]

When the mother in law died(big liberal) so did the paper delivery. It was the Springfield paper (nearest large city) and of course it is a Gannett publication. (big liberal newspaper company). There will never be another delivery to my household. AND I sure hope they go broke, and cease and desist. Show me a newspaper that is not a big liberal biased rag.

 

[MossRoad]

If you get the paper delivered to your house, what time does the paper show up?

Since my dad moved in, signed up for the local paper to be delivered so he can read it in the morning.

So far, after two weeks, paper shows up anytime between 0800-1100 and no day has been the same per time frame of delivery.

At my dad's old house, he'd see it by 0500 EVERY morning, 7 days a week.

Called the paper today as I'm trying to figure out what's going on.

Paper tells me I should see it by 0700 every day.

Last week the paper also told me that they would set up a paper "box" next to the mail box so the paper can be put in it, and a week later, nothing....

What's funny is the only local gas station up the road that carries the paper runs out of papers by 0900 EVERY day. I ask them why, and they tell me they've asked for more papers, but to no avail.

When I use to manage a convenience store in my youth, the idea with newspapers was to have ONE left over at the end of the day so you know you were maximizing sales per that newspaper.

I'm beginning to think the local rural carrier may not care.

Just wondering if everyone else gets it anytime or is there a speciffic time it's always there?

Out of curiosity, what's the name of the paper you are trying to get delivered to your place?

Our local paper is supposed to be in your box by 7:00am weekdays, and 7:30 Sundays. It usually is.

Your carrier might not be the same person that stocks the gas station.

With fewer customers, the routes get longer to keep the number of customers on each route lucrative enough for someone to want to deliver it. But it gets to a point that the farther out you go, the less profitable it becomes, and it actually costs you more to deliver the paper to a rural customer than it's worth. So you have to make a business decision and drop customers on those routes.

The cost of your subscription does not cover the cost of the paper it's printed on, nor does it cover the cost of delivery. That's all covered by advertising dollars.

None of that excuses poor customer service. I don't know of any newspaper in the U.S. that employs it's own delivery staff. They are contractors. And the turnover rate is huge. Very few people want a 7 day a week job that expects you to be there 4:00am to 7:00am in all weather, use your own vehicle, and get no benefits. Very few. So, it's up to the circulation manager at the newspaper to make sure down routes are covered, and bad carriers are terminated.

 

[tractorshopper]

My paper gets delivered about 2-3 am like clockwork. I guess I'm fortunate. It's a local rural paper, and I'm even a little rural for it.

 

[TnAndy]

Ours is delivered by a carrier by 5-5:30am. We recently cut back from 7 days/wk to Wed/Sun only....Wednesday for the sale ads, and Sunday because it's the big edition.....rest of the week we were finding is pretty much a waste of time. We do have online access to it everyday, another factor in the cut back.

 

[coolreinfarm]

All my news is digital, delivery got so bad, now I don’t have to go outside to dig the paper out of the snow. Nothing to recycle either.

 

[California]

A long time ago when I worked at the Tool and Machine company one of our contracts was to make parts for SF Chronicle Printing Presses... it was a lucrative contract and provided the bulk of work for several men overhauling and rejuvenating the equipment.

Lots of interesting jobs back then... Space Shuttle, Kellogg's, Caterpillar, Owens Illinois, Hexcel, Del Monte, etc... Virtually all of the Bay Area Manufacturing from that time no longer exists...

Ever deal with R W Scott Precision O-Rings of West Berkeley, 5th street or so? A specialty manufacturer with about 10 employees. I worked there for a while. Similar customer list to yours.

 

[Ken]

When the mother in law died(big liberal) so did the paper delivery. It was the Springfield paper (nearest large city) and of course it is a Gannett publication. (big liberal newspaper company). There will never be another delivery to my household. AND I sure hope they go broke, and cease and desist. Show me a newspaper that is not a big liberal biased rag.

James consider the GRIT and old rural family news paper now a magazine.
ken

 

[ultrarunner]

Ever deal with R W Scott Precision O-Rings of West Berkeley, 5th street or so? A specialty manufacturer with about 10 employees. I worked there for a while. Similar customer list to yours.

Sounds familiar...

Lots of communities still have a local weekly paper with good circulation... targeting community events...

We get a 100 copies each week and they are gone by noon.

 

[two_bit_score]

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. “Scoops” 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 “news”.

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