Whatever Happened to the Newspaper Delivery Boy?

[ken in texas]

I miss having the milkman even more. We had a milkman well into the 1970s.

It's so nice to be appreciated. ;-) My Dad had a dairy farm so if I wasn't in school I was helping deliver milk.

[doorgunner69]

Maybe it got too risky, weren't the two women in this truck doing newspaper delivery?

[TBP]

Grownups do it now. It’s been “professionalized.” That’s not good.

In part, that’s a function of the death of the afternoon papers. I used to have a paper route after school. I got a good walk daily (well, weekdays anyway) and I made a little money. All in all, not a bad deal.

[grame]

They sign those contracts before they truly know what the job is!

[Red Badger]

I delivered the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Birmingham News, and the Jacksonville Journal in my teenage years.......

[mountainbunny]

No one in our neighborhood takes the paper.

Not sure how the local paper stays in business.

No paper = no need for paper delivery.

[SamAdams76]

Maybe it's the neighborhood you live in. Most people in mine take the WSJ and/or NYT and a local paper. Pretty much every driveway has at least one newspaper in the morning.

I will not even touch a NYT but have been subscribed to WSJ most of my adult life.

[Dr. Sivana]

Most people in my Southern CT neighborhood still get papers delivered. Even with the Internet, there are still local community papers that are much in demand.

I was a paperboy in Southern Connecticut. The Morning Record (now the Meriden Record-Journal). Collecting was the worst. Sometimes people would move owing four weeks or so after ducking.

I got a bonus five dollars when the price of the paper went up from 10 cents to 15 cents (50% increase!) and I kept all my customers!

You were in MA for your childhood? I used to buy the Boston Herald-American just for the comics section ... best in the country!

[Bruce Kurtz]

I was a paperboy from 1965-1968. Had about 60 customers, and about 6 different newspapers (i.e. New York Times, Philly Inquirer, Harrisburg Patriot, Wall Street Jr etc.) . The best tippers got their papers first and put between the screen door and door, so they would not have to go out to the porch. My best tipper would give me $1 every collection, which was every two weeks. He even paid for me to go to summer camp one year.

[SamAdams76]

If one of my customers fell more than two weeks behind, I would suspend delivery and notify the distributor. My first experience of learning how to handle deadbeat customers!

I found collecting the money each week a big hassle so I convinced most of my customers to put the money in an envelope and tape it to the door so I could pick it up in the morning. A lot of them put a $5 or $10 bill in those envelopes at Christmas time. I did very well that time of year. Yes, grew up in the Boston area and lived there a good portion of my adult life. Now I work in Manhattan and commute to Fairfield county. Very nice area but so expensive.

[patriotspride]

Had my route in the 60’s.

Made a whopping $10 a week, based on 7 days of delivery, and walking then later riding my bike for the 2 miles it covered..... Had about 35-50 customers....

Christmas was great as I might get $1 as a tip for the year from each customer :):)

[The FIGHTIN Illini]

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