Who here works for a daily paper that delivers ONLY in the mail?

[apeman33]

I ask because that looks like what my paper is about to become. We're going from M-F afternoon/Sun. morning to Tu-Sa mornings.

The reason for going all mail (even if you live across the street from our office, you're getting your paper in the mail) is to dump the carriers, who are the source of so many complaints our circulation director can't do anything else.....oh, and to save supposedly around $20K a year. ::) (This wasn't an issue when we had kids doing routes; then for "liability reasons," they switched to adult contract labor and, geeze, all of a sudden, we've got a bunch of ****-ups throwing papers...hmmmmm)

Now I was told by our publisher that this morning paper, mail-only concept has been working in other places. But she didn't cite examples.

The press is 20 miles away, meaning I'll have to send the pages over via Internet...if it's not down that night because our IP sucks. :P And then hopefully nothing else goes wrong because, supposedly, the papers have to be at the post office by 4:30 a.m. or else the post office won't deliver them that day.

(It won't be a morning paper in my neighborhood because I've not ever noticed the mail reaching my house before noon...)

So, ladies and gentlemen of the forum, have you ever heard of a daily, morning, mail-only paper? If so, which ones?

 

[sportsnut]

I have never really heard of a daily anything being delievered while I am eating breakfast at 7am. I have come home at 4am and actually walked into my house as the adult delivery people arrive with my LA Times.

I have also never heard of a rapid response by a post office, where they would get the paper, sort and then deliver the mail in a 4-5 hour period.

I know this can't work in a metro area, but possibly in a small town i.e. Santa Barbara, Barstow etc.

 

[PHINJ]

Is this the new Gannett innovation?

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

The Wayne County News (W.Va) delivers its daily papers via the post office. It's not the perfect situation, but they make it work.

 

[Football_Bat]

The solution to me seems clear: Fire the ****-ups throwing the routes. Hire better people. If that doesn't work, fire the person that keeps hiring the ****-ups.

 

[OTD]

The solution to me seems clear: Fire the ****-ups throwing the routes. Hire better people. If that doesn't work, fire the person that keeps hiring the ****-ups.

Good idea, but finding people to be carriers is difficult. It's a part-time job with ****ty hours. The price of gas isn't making it easy either.

 

[Rosie]

Good grief, you are about to enter the Nightmare Zone.

I was at a weekly which was mail delivery and newsstands. While our home post office was good to us, other post offices were horrible.

Your paper should take FB's advice.

 

[slappy4428]

That's gonna work real well on Thanksgiving Day...

 

[Rosie]

The solution to me seems clear: Fire the ****-ups throwing the routes. Hire better people. If that doesn't work, fire the person that keeps hiring the ****-ups.

Good idea, but finding people to be carriers is difficult. It's a part-time job with ****ty hours. The price of gas isn't making it easy either.

With a daily, the 'charge-backs' (I don't remember the correct term, but the post office charges you for undelivered papers that don't have a forwarding order) could become very costly. The paper could raise its compensation for carriers and still come out ahead.

 

[Editude]

Is the world that much more dangerous since I delivered morning papers on my bike as a teenager?

 

[sportsnut]

Is the world that much more dangerous since I delivered morning papers on my bike as a teenager?

The word is just as dangerous if not better then before, but the teenagers that are supposed to have this ****ty job waking up at 6am are to freaking lazy to do it. So we have to get adults, with cars to deliver the paper. I am from a small town in Norway, and they still have kids that deliver the paper and they are known in the neighborhood because of it. I used to deliver newspaper back when I was a kid and it is actually kinda fun.

 

[apeman33]

That's gonna work real well on Thanksgiving Day...

We're a small paper. We still don't print on major holidays.

Not Gannett. Rust Communications.

And its not so much about the ****-ups. Its about saving $20K a year. They've tried firing people and hiring new ones. It's just that the people who are willing to do this are not exactly the town's best people. Also, they didn't apparently pay a lot of them enough to cover the cost of gas as it is now.

We're ceasing Monday publication in part because a lot of postal holidays are on Monday and because the "mother ship" paper has never printed on Monday. That way the office and the press doesn't have to be staffed on Sunday.

I'm predicting we lose several hundred subs in the first few months. We just screwed with their TV guide and our readers HATE it. Now we're going to screw with their entire paper.

Or as one of my friends said to me the other day: "Do you know anyone who gets their mail before 7 a.m.? You're still going to be an afternoon paper because that's when most people are going to see it. You'll just be an extra day behind."

At this point, it's possible my deadline could be as early as 8 p.m., especially in the spring and summer. The exception, from what they've told me, would be for the Saturday paper so that people wouldn't have to wait until Tuesday to read about Friday's big football game.

A few years ago, when we still printed our own Saturday morning paper (before we combo'd with the "mother ship" for a Sunday ed.), the new publisher decided to have it on the press at 5 p.m. Friday. No exceptions. So Friday games didn't get in until Monday. We had a competitor down the road and people were switching to them so they could read about our school's team without having to wait.

I kind of want to be here the first week or so and then have everything ready so I can bail when the **** hits the fan.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Is the world that much more dangerous since I delivered morning papers on my bike as a teenager?

The word is just as dangerous if not better then before, but the teenagers that are supposed to have this ****ty job waking up at 6am are to freaking lazy to do it. So we have to get adults, with cars to deliver the paper. I am from a small town in Norway, and they still have kids that deliver the paper and they are known in the neighborhood because of it. I used to deliver newspaper back when I was a kid and it is actually kinda fun.

My paper did away with kid carriers, but that was because people were wanting the paper earlier in the morning, like 4:30. It's a heavy commuter area and people want to read it before their two-hour commute.

 

[wickedwritah]

This is coincidental, but circulations have taken big hits since kids have been ditched as carriers. Service has fallen dramatically, causing people to stop subscribing. Luckily, the service on my parents' route hasn't. (We've known the current guy long before he and his sons were doing the route.)

As to why an afternoon paper would feel it necessary to ditch kid carriers, I have no clue. Definitely shouldn't be a safety issue there.

 

[apeman33]

This is coincidental, but circulations have taken big hits since kids have been ditched as carriers. Service has fallen dramatically, causing people to stop subscribing. Luckily, the service on my parents' route hasn't. (We've known the current guy long before he and his sons were doing the route.)

As to why an afternoon paper would feel it necessary to ditch kid carriers, I have no clue. Definitely shouldn't be a safety issue there.

Shouldn't be...but "liability" was the reason for switching to adults. And then our service fell off and we had some subscriptions cancelled. Maybe it's not a coincidence.

 

[wickedwritah]

I meant the part about big hits related to circulation. Kid delivery stopped in many places in the 1990s (that's when The Boston Globe ditched youth carriers), not long before the rise of the Internet.

I'm sure there is some connection, though, to the switch from youth carriers to motor carriers. The pool of people who are up at 3 a.m. and want to deliver newspapers can be undesirable.

 

[apeman33]

I meant the part about big hits related to circulation. Kid delivery stopped in many places in the 1990s (that's when The Boston Globe ditched youth carriers), not long before the rise of the Internet.

I'm sure there is some connection, though, to the switch from youth carriers to motor carriers. The pool of people who are up at 3 a.m. and want to deliver newspapers can be undesirable.

In this town, some of the people available at 3 p.m. aren't that much more desireable.
=oD
(unfortunately, it's true)

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

I was at a small daily (no Sunday), about 9K circ. (although I think it was actually less than that).

It was delivered in the mail. We had to put the paper to bed by 11pm, so the driver could make it to the mother paper about 30-40 minutes away. Eventually they got a T1 line, but the driver still took pasteups down as a backup.

Anyway, he'd bring the papers back to the post office. I don't think I ever got my paper before 1pm or so when the mail came.

They were fairly easy going if we missed deadline by a little, especially after the T1 line was installed and especially for Saturday's paper.

They still sold the paper in boxes and in stores, but the only home delivery was via mail.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I remember the Journals in the D.C. suburbs were mailed before the Examiner enveloped them.

 

[mustangj17]

IT IS THE WORST!!!!

You work six days a week, because the mail is delivered six days. But you work days like thanksgiving because they deliver the next day, same with XMas. This was bad for me since I was a preps reporter. So I had to cover for my bosses who screwed me over.

Also.... real late deadline. It sucks. I used to have to stay till 2 am to wait for my proofs to get done, but I had to be in by 3 some days to grab the camera so i could go shoot photos for a 3:30 event. Makes for a real long week.