Reporters delivering Boston Globe

[JimmyHoward33]

Boston Globe reporters and editors to pitch in with home delivery after issues with a new provide:

Globe reporters, editors mobilize to aid home delivery teams - The Boston Globe

'Army' of Boston Globe reporters to deliver Sunday's newspaper

Cool community outreach thing in a pinch or giving some publisher somewhere in the USA a bright idea.....

 

[DanOregon]

I wouldn't be "celebrating it." I'd fire whomever came up with the idea first - though I imagine the circulation department was already gutted and outsourced - and realize that someone else will probably "step up" when they outsource the news department.
Hell, I've dropped off more than a few papers to people calling in and not getting a paper, it's nice to connect with the readers, but also a reminder that the most critical part of the newspaper process -- getting it to the customer - is the least valued by management.

 

[Smokey33]

Yes, the tone of these articles and twitter posts is very strange.

We're already having to wear so many hats due to layoffs. Wearing one more, even temporarily, is no cause for celebration.

The corporate types would have journalists scrubbing the newsroom toilets if they could. But no worries corporate types, we journalists will take on yet another duty to save your asses.

 

[Fredrick]

I wouldn't be "celebrating it." I'd fire whomever came up with the idea first - though I imagine the circulation department was already gutted and outsourced - and realize that someone else will probably "step up" when they outsource the news department.
Hell, I've dropped off more than a few papers to people calling in and not getting a paper, it's nice to connect with the readers, but also a reminder that the most critical part of the newspaper process -- getting it to the customer - is the least valued by management.

Very true about management not caring about delivery. I've been at shops the last several years where indeed two places asked reporters to help out circulation. They did make it where you could "volunteer" to deliver papers at 5 or 6 a.m. Only the total suck up reporters volunteered, figuring it'd help them in case of layoffs. That's not the case, folks. If they are going to lay you off they will lay you off.
How bout this one? Gannett or somebody decided it would be a moneymake to offer porch delivery for an extra 5 bucks a month. If you didn't pay that, you got the product at the end of the driveway. I mean, what the frick???? BAD BUSINESS. Newspapers are disgraceful. That's all there is to it.

 

[Riptide]

Now they're treating the readers like the employees they kept around. Bad move.

 

[PaperDoll]

Do readers care how they get their newspaper delivered? I doubt it, as long as the paper is where they want it when they want it. Same for all "content."

The Globe has reported on itself to create a positive spin, and other media outlets are picking up on it. Did The Globe do the same during its own layoffs?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Were most of the subscribers even awake when the reporters delivered the paper? Why would the subscribers even care, as long as they got he paper?

 

[ChrisLong]

OC Register did something like this back when Kushner hucked up the delivery dept. I think they were offering employees a $25 gift card for a couple hours of deliveries. After Kushner was sent away in disgrace, his replacement, Mirman, called an emergency delivery plan. He was out there himself throwing papers and, of course, it became a story they publicized.

 

[YankeeFan]

Next few months should be fun:

 

[I Should Coco]

Not sure about the big papers, but here in Podunk, we can't keep drivers. Too many other places hiring — and paying better wages for jobs with better hours.

Plus with the snow we've had over the past 2-3 weeks, not sure if there's a worse job than delivering huge holiday papers between 3-6 a.m. (or later because of poor road conditions)

 

[LanceyHoward]

[

Not sure about the big papers, but here in Podunk, we can't keep drivers. Too many other places hiring — and paying better wages for jobs with better hours.

Plus with the snow we've had over the past 2-3 weeks, not sure if there's a worse job than delivering huge holiday papers between 3-6 a.m. (or later because of poor road conditions)

It is a terrible job. Do the carriers get days off or are they expected to work every day? And as a former paper boy I know it is getting harder to porch papers. The routes have become so spread out as circulation has declined I don't know if they have the time.

 

[wicked]

I looked into getting a run about 15 years ago in the small burg where I lived to make some extra cash. Even then it was amazingly difficult, in terms of the work and keeping people.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

We got back to our house late last night after spending the holidays in Florida with my mom. There were five days of home-delivered Globes on the front stoop. We had stopped delivery of the paper for December 23rd until tomorrow.

 

[Cosmo]

My first job in newspapers was delivering for the Washington Post when I was 16. It was a fun job for a teenager, but I couldn't imagine doing it full time. Basically worked from about 1-4 a.m. on weeknights and then had to do the Sunday inserts on Saturday afternoon, which was the worst part of the job. Could not imagine being a professional at one of these papers and doing than on top of my other work. Ridiculous.

 

[wicked]

Globe, distributor trade blame as delivery woes persist - The Boston Globe

 

[YankeeFan]

Globe, distributor trade blame as delivery woes persist - The Boston Globe

Things will be fine in about four months. No big deal.

 

[I Should Coco]

Globe, distributor trade blame as delivery woes persist - The Boston Globe

Lots of interesting things in the link — thanks, wicked.

1. Only 205,000 Sunday subscribers? For the Boston Globe?!?!?

2. The "just be patient, please — things will be sorted out in 4-6 months" is great stuff. Will readers who don't get the paper delivered have 4-6 months cut out of their subscription cost? I doubt it.

3. The quote at the end of the story — from Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy — was good, too: “But if this drags on and on, and large numbers of people cancel the print edition, it does become an existential threat. The print edition is where the money comes from.”

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I should add that the Globe has let the print edition slide in subtler but noticeable ways before this fiasco. Case in point one. Late national scores such as Monday night NFL appear in my home delivered Times, but not my Globe. Papers are printed in same plant.
Case in point two. Comic strip Tank McNamara used to run on sports agate page. Now it is nowhere in print edition, but remains in comics section of Website. That's just odd,

 

[Ace]

Not sure about the big papers, but here in Podunk, we can't keep drivers. Too many other places hiring — and paying better wages for jobs with better hours.

Plus with the snow we've had over the past 2-3 weeks, not sure if there's a worse job than delivering huge holiday papers between 3-6 a.m. (or later because of poor road conditions)

When Gannett finally moved from "papers will be here for a long, long time" to focusing on the Web, this is the reason. Publishers are scared.

The fewer customers you have, the less attractive it is for the drivers. Either they have to take a longer route or get less money throwing fewer papers for the same route.

At some tipping point, maybe soon, you can't get people willing to do the job for the money.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

In my day, and I'm sure it hasn't changed, 90 percent of Herald sales were newsstand sales. I couldn't get it delivered in my suburban town. Only works in a big city with mass transit, though.