Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Winslow]

You'd have to live within bicycle distance of a kid who is ready to win a prize for selling Grit. Nice business model.

Haha! Ok, no chance anyone was willing to ride bicycles for any appreciable distances where I was. That terrain was not (and still isn't) conducive to casual/recreational biking. There was only one "weird kid" who would actually ride his bike into town to go the library, just because he "liked reading."

Something was obviously wrong with that kid...

(Now that kid is thinking about tracing his route on an online map to check the mileage, and see just how weird he was.)

 

[GonePlaid]

Never sold Grit, but I did have a paper route. South side of Ft. Worth, for two years. You are correct, labor was free, I got paid, out of my collections, after I paid my bill. Total cost of daily delivery including Sunday, was $2.85 a month. Most of my customers were pretty decent about paying, but there were those who never seemed to have any money, come collection time. I was required to carry them on my books for three months, before I could cancel their subscription. Of course they could then simply re-subscribe, and the cycle would start over.
I actually covered two routes, next to each other. It took me two trips on Sunday morning, to deliver all of my papers, using two shoulder bags, and double baskets on my bicycle. I was 12-14 at the time. I doubt many kids that age now, would last three days. While I never made much more than about $100.00 per month, I did learn how to deal with people, organize my finances, and the value of responsibility.

I also had 2 adjoining routes. The guy who'd had the second route before me had 'poached' some customers on my route and some addresses were on both. I showed this to the district manger who said they must want 2 papers, so next collection day I asked at each 'doubled' house. They were all confused why they'd been getting 2-which I had to pay for. When I brought it up again, I was told I was being lazy. I handed them the card ring and said "you deliver them. Bye."
One other thing-the paper(Miami News)guaranteed 'on porch delivery'. I had one customer(Sunday only)who did not want it on his porch. OK. The district manager chewed me out for not putting it on the porch. (He had followed me and put it on the porch). I told him why and again it was "Lazy". So I talked to the customer and told him the DM would be following me the next Sunday. The customer said, "no problem. I'll take care of it." When the DM walked up to put the paper on the porch, my customer came out with a baseball bat, threatened the DM with arrest and told him to GTF offa the property. I had hidden behind a nearby hedge to watch it go down. Laffed my @$$ off. 'Course the DM never apologized-but he left me alone-'til I quit.

 

[GonePlaid]

Haha! Ok, no chance anyone was willing to ride bicycles for any appreciable distances where I was. That terrain was not (and still isn't) conducive to casual/recreational biking. There was only one "weird kid" who would actually ride his bike into town to go the library, just because he "liked reading."

Something was obviously wrong with that kid...

(Now that kid is thinking about tracing his route on an online map to check the mileage, and see just how weird he was.)

 

[gtmalone]

A printing press was once a license to print money. Technology changed the delivery format, but the model is still valid. Stronger, even. Selling content.

Gets pretty tricky pretty fast at this point.

Grit at its height had a verified circulation of more than a million. That's a lot of news carriers. They used to say "newsboys". I'd say the Grit circulation department would have be just fine with girl news carriers. The point isn't who, the point is getting the paper on the right doorstep at the right time. Subscribers do call if the paper's left in the rain, or thrown on the lawn, or roof ...

Mayhap one such as I would hear the stories first hand from circulation managers. Now there is a thankless profession.

All that verified circulation determines how ad rates are set. That's paired with what's called penetration, e.g. the percentage of homes that buy your content. If your verified circulation is 100,000 (yay), but the area you serve is 10 million people, you ain't doing so well. Especially for a daily paper. People do tend to despise their local paper.

Content was never my concern. I couldn't afford to worry about a client's content. Their business. What I saw to is it is correct on every micro-level. :: devil horns :: sometimes when I needed to teach editors something I used historical news stories for dummy content. Got editors reading, and writing headlines for the first battle of Ypres, or the burning of the Reichstag, or the very famous story of an emergency appendectomy on board a submarine.

Ya know, I forgot I did that ...

Lat night we saw an emergency appendectomy on a submarine in "Destination Tokyo".

 

[gtmalone]

People will buy anything...

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[gtmalone]

Lat night we saw an emergency appendectomy on a submarine in "Destination Tokyo".

Recorded a number of war movies over Memorial Day weekend - Up Periscope, Destination Tokyo, The Enemy Below, The Devil's Brigade.

 

[GonePlaid]

I also had 2 adjoining routes. The guy who'd had the second route before me had 'poached' some customers on my route and some addresses were on both. I showed this to the district manger who said they must want 2 papers, so next collection day I asked at each 'doubled' house. They were all confused why they'd been getting 2-which I had to pay for. When I brought it up again, I was told I was being lazy. I handed them the card ring and said "you deliver them. Bye."
One other thing-the paper(Miami News)guaranteed 'on porch delivery'. I had one customer(Sunday only)who did not want it on his porch. OK. The district manager chewed me out for not putting it on the porch. (He had followed me and put it on the porch). I told him why and again it was "Lazy". So I talked to the customer and told him the DM would be following me the next Sunday. The customer said, "no problem. I'll take care of it." When the DM walked up to put the paper on the porch, my customer came out with a baseball bat, threatened the DM with arrest and told him to GTF offa the property. I had hidden behind a nearby hedge to watch it go down. Laffed my @$$ off. 'Course the DM never apologized-but he left me alone-'til I quit.

It occurs to me that that was my first experience-of many-with a manager who didn't listen to the people doing the work.

 

[Deeper Texan]

I also had 2 adjoining routes. The guy who'd had the second route before me had 'poached' some customers on my route and some addresses were on both. I showed this to the district manger who said they must want 2 papers, so next collection day I asked at each 'doubled' house. They were all confused why they'd been getting 2-which I had to pay for. When I brought it up again, I was told I was being lazy. I handed them the card ring and said "you deliver them. Bye."
One other thing-the paper(Miami News)guaranteed 'on porch delivery'. I had one customer(Sunday only)who did not want it on his porch. OK. The district manager chewed me out for not putting it on the porch. (He had followed me and put it on the porch). I told him why and again it was "Lazy". So I talked to the customer and told him the DM would be following me the next Sunday. The customer said, "no problem. I'll take care of it." When the DM walked up to put the paper on the porch, my customer came out with a baseball bat, threatened the DM with arrest and told him to GTF offa the property. I had hidden behind a nearby hedge to watch it go down. Laffed my @$$ off. 'Course the DM never apologized-but he left me alone-'til I quit.

I was pretty lucky, my DM, was pretty laid back, and if I didn't get complaints, he left me alone. In fact, he handled a complaint that I got for throwing a paper in a yard where the sprinkler was running. I told him the sprinkler wasn't running when I threw the paper. He met with the homeowner, who insisted the sprinkler was on, because he turned it on when he came home from work. An hour and 1/2 after I had returned home. This was proven by the fact, my DM, had come by to pick up my collection that evening, at least 30 minutes before the homeowner claimed to have gotten home.
Strange how I remember that.

 

[GonePlaid]

I was pretty lucky, my DM, was pretty laid back, and if I didn't get complaints, he left me alone. In fact, he handled a complaint that I got for throwing a paper in a yard where the sprinkler was running. I told him the sprinkler wasn't running when I threw the paper. He met with the homeowner, who insisted the sprinkler was on, because he turned it on when he came home from work. An hour and 1/2 after I had returned home. This was proven by the fact, my DM, had come by to pick up my collection that evening, at least 30 minutes before the homeowner claimed to have gotten home.
Strange how I remember that.

Some things stick in your mind. I hadn't thought about my experiences in prolly 10-15 years.

 

[roccobass]

People will buy anything...

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You're right about that. I'm surprised I didn't see the ashtray for sale too.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I don't recall how many clients I had when delivering newspapers but 2¢ per paper comes to mind. Saturday was the big paper, it was 5¢. It was a big deal when one Saturday only customer used to tip 25¢ every week. A second job that I had was delivering flyers once a week for $1. No not at the same time.

The best route that I wish I had was delivering in apartment buildings. A big building could have 700 or more units. Even if only half took the paper they did very well. These people had more than one building in their route. Adults with cars got those routes. Papers were prepaid to the newspaper so no collection. Early morning deliveries (6AM) were given an elevator, they'd fly from floor to floor. They left a card at Christmas with their address, many customers would give them a yearly tip.

I still see a guy in a van delivering papers to houses. He carries more than one newspaper. He drives from house to house, not many in a block. Not many people subscribe to the printed edition these days, I know only one person that still gets the paper, he's in his 90's and can't read from a pad. Digital subscriptions and tree huggers protesting killed the print business just like video killed the radio star.

 

[notJaco]

Sing it Bob! the times they are a changin'

 

[notJaco]

Sing it Bob! the times they are a changin'

Oh and mute that E string on the B7 chord.

 

[gtmalone]

It occurs to me that that was my first experience-of many-with a manager who didn't listen to the people doing the work.

How dare you talk like that about several of my former bosses, boss's boss, boss's boss's boss, ad infinitum...!

 

[gtmalone]

I was pretty lucky, my DM, was pretty laid back, and if I didn't get complaints, he left me alone. In fact, he handled a complaint that I got for throwing a paper in a yard where the sprinkler was running. I told him the sprinkler wasn't running when I threw the paper. He met with the homeowner, who insisted the sprinkler was on, because he turned it on when he came home from work. An hour and 1/2 after I had returned home. This was proven by the fact, my DM, had come by to pick up my collection that evening, at least 30 minutes before the homeowner claimed to have gotten home.
Strange how I remember that.

I was pretty lucky with three of the 10 or 12 I had at my former employer. The first one, one in the middle, and the last. They let me do my job and were there if I needed anything. I also became good friends with them.

The one in the middle was the last of six in the span of a year. I never met any of the previous five in person and I think there was one I never even talked to. Corp reorgs that did nothing except shuffle people around. I was having a competition with a guy I worked with to see how many bosses we had in a year. We would check in to see who had a new boss. We were tied at five, then I got six.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I don't recall how many clients I had when delivering newspapers but 2¢ per paper comes to mind. Saturday was the big paper, it was 5¢. It was a big deal when one Saturday only customer used to tip 25¢ every week. A second job that I had was delivering flyers once a week for $1. No not at the same time.

The best route that I wish I had was delivering in apartment buildings. A big building could have 700 or more units. Even if only half took the paper they did very well. These people had more than one building in their route. Adults with cars got those routes. Papers were prepaid to the newspaper so no collection. Early morning deliveries (6AM) were given an elevator, they'd fly from floor to floor. They left a card at Christmas with their address, many customers would give them a yearly tip.

I still see a guy in a van delivering papers to houses. He carries more than one newspaper. He drives from house to house, not many in a block. Not many people subscribe to the printed edition these days, I know only one person that still gets the paper, he's in his 90's and can't read from a pad. Digital subscriptions and tree huggers protesting killed the print business just like video killed the radio star.

Big newspaper outfits like the Tribune Company bought their own tree farms many decades ago. The cover price of the paper no longer covered even the cost of the newsprint. Individual copy prices went up and serious cost-cutting measures went into play. Papers got smaller, and thinner as positions were eliminated. Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times both gained no mean notoriety as union-busters. Investors closed papers, not because they weren't profitable, because they weren't profitable enough.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Big newspaper outfits like the Tribune Company bought their own tree farms many decades ago. The cover price of the paper no longer covered even the cost of the newsprint. Individual copy prices went up and serious cost-cutting measures went into play. Papers got smaller, and thinner as positions were eliminated. Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times both gained no mean notoriety as union-busters. Investors closed papers, not because they weren't profitable, because they weren't profitable enough.

At one time ownership was within families, ink was in their blood. It went downhill when capital investment groups bought papers. Of course, there were and still is, those that wanted to conrol the masses. Papers initially took a political side, at least editorially, then it got more blatant. Churches also told their congregations how to vote. In the early days, churches were the law. Those in power always want to control.

 

[notJaco]

At one time ownership was within families, ink was in their blood. It went downhill when capital investment groups bought papers. Of course, there were and still is, those that wanted to conrol the masses. Papers initially took a political side, at least editorially, then it got more blatant. Churches also told their congregations how to vote. In the early days, churches were the law. Those in power always want to control.

It is alarming to think that existence as we know it is reliant upon somebody's version of the news.

 

[GwenOnBass]

William Randolph Hearst is the great-granddaddy of yellow journalism, yet hardly the first. Owning a printing press was once a license to print money. Ownership of prime sales locations was settled with baseball bats. Those newspaper wars you may have heard about really were wars.

Publishers are of the country club set. Their kids in line for executive positions learn the ropes coming up on ad side. Very rare to find a publisher who came up on news side. Reporters and editors can be told what to run. Still happens, and happened very recently.

 

[gtmalone]

Absolutely, yes. People will buy anything.

McDonald's chicken nugget shaped like Among Us crewmate fetching $35,000 on eBay