The Demise Of An American Tradition | Paperboys - and girls - go the way of milkmen as adult carriers increasingly replace them
Countless prominent business and community leaders — such as Hartford Treasurer Kathleen Palm, retired surgeon and former Hartford City Councilman Robert Painter, and developer Sanford Cloud — got their start in business hauling newspapers door-to-door in their old neighborhoods. But the job that helped shape so many of today’s workers is quickly disappearing, dying out because of marketing pressures and changing American lifestyles.
In 1994, nearly 60 percent of all newspaper carriers were youths, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Today, that number is less than 20 percent.
An informal survey of area newspapers confirms the same: The Hartford Courant, the New Haven Register, even the New Britain Herald no longer contract with young carriers. The Willimantic Chronicle and the Journal Inquirer still use young labor, but even they report a decrease.
Advertising changes are a leading factor, said John Murray, vice president of circulation and marketing for the NAA.
Think the Sunday paper has gotten heavier in the past few years? It has.
Print advertisers have long used advertising inserts, but now there are a lot more of them included in the Sunday paper, making them too heavy for kids to lug door to door.
And instead of simply putting their inserts in the entire batch of a newspaper’s issue, advertisers carefully target the ads to specific area codes. That means more complicated directions for what goes where, and a larger variety of inserts to put in.
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The more complex situation has led to the rise of the distribution center, Murray said. Paperboys — and papergirls — mostly used to just receive the papers at their home: “It was pretty straightforward,” he said. Now it’s much easier to have paper carriers drive to central distribution centers, where inserts are already packaged in and ready to go to specific houses.
A change in commute times is also pushing kids out of the business. A 7 a.m. delivery time used to be acceptable for most morning papers, Murray said. But because more people leave for work earlier, they want their news at 6 or 6:30 a.m., too early for most kids.
The process of collecting fees is also disappearing, he said, as more people pay online with credit cards.
This all means that instead of getting the paper from little Tommy from down the street, you get it from a retiree, a stay-at-home mom, or just an adult who needed a second job, Murray and other circulation directors say.
But some papers still do a lot of business with younger workers, including the Journal Inquirer. Denise Langan, the JI’s circulation director, said employing kids from the neighborhood gives the paper a more personal touch. Readers like to know who’s coming to their front door every day, she said.
The JI and the Willimantic Chronicle have both been able to hang on to more youth carriers than other papers because they deliver in the afternoons, a more kid-friendly time.
About 80 percent of JI carriers are kids, Langan said, but the paper has had to use more adults in recent years. A recent JI posting for carrier jobs asks for drivers who want to earn $150-$200 a week for the work. Adults have to get paid more for their work, but they also cover more territory.
It’s tempting to look at the traditional young paper carrier as the ideal of newspaper service, Murray said, but using car-driving adults means that newspapers are often delivered earlier and more consistently. Former carriers, however, often only remember the good times and their own sterling performances.
Take Painter, the retired surgeon and former city councilman, who recalls figuring out the trick of chucking papers on the front porch perfectly, so as not to break any windows. And Cloud, chairman and CEO of the real estate Cloud Co., reminisces fondly about using his newspaper delivery earnings to buy snacks for Friday-night family time.
“Their memories will be kind,” said Murray, referring to the fond recollections of former paperboys. “They’ll recall themselves as giving a superb level of service.”
In addition, nowadays, there aren’t exactly legions of kids who long to take on the job, he said. Newspaper circulation departments commonly started complaining about shortages of carriers as far back as the 1970s. When household incomes rose, kids could get money from mom and dad more easily.
Langan highlights another serious difference: “Kids are a lot busier than they used to be.” When soccer practice and tons of other after-school commitments take up their time, a paper route becomes impossible.
Mark Banfield, circulation director in Willimantic, points out that larger demographic shifts have driven down the number of youth carriers.
“There’s fewer kids, period, than there were 10 to 15 years ago,” he said.
Murray says that although service may have improved with adult carriers, he admits that the would-be young paperboys and girls might be missing out.
His own son had a paper route, Murray said, and the boy grew up with a knack for relating to a variety of people that he probably learned in part from that early work experience. Today he has an excellent job that requires him to use that skill often.
“Having to interact with adults — there’s real value in it. [Younger generations] probably did lose an opportunity.”
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