I have been following with great interest the childhood reminiscences of my friend Skip. The instalment in which he mentioned his paper route prompts me to describe the experience of an English paperboy as there are significant differences between the American and the English ways of dealing with newspaper delivery. For a start, our boys (and girls these days) have paper rounds, not routes. But that difference is merely cosmetic, a matter of semantics.
It may be that I am inferring something that is incorrect but I assume that, in Skip's boyhood if not now, newspaper publishers deliver a supply of papers to the paperboy for delivery. The paperboy is therefore dealing with the publisher direct and is handling only titles published by that company - or even just one of the titles published by that company. As I read it, the American paperboy is also responsible for collecting payment from customers and handing over money to the publisher, retaining his agreed percentage. As for logistics, the American paperboy tends to cycle his route, throwing the papers on the porches of the respective houses. That is all completely different from what happens here in England.
Newspapers in England are rarely sold by subscription. Publishers take orders from wholesalers who in turn take orders from retailers. These retailers are usually small shopkeepers who are newsagents, tobacconists and confectioners. They will often sell stationery and perhaps a limited range of groceries and may well have a sub-branch of the Post Office in their shop. The newsagent takes delivery of his daily papers - Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Mail, Express, Mirror, Sun, Star, Financial Times, Racing Post etc - and marks them up for delivery as appropriate, together with any weekly or monthly magazines which have also arrived for delivery. In other words, he puts together the papers for each round, each paper being marked with the address to which it is to be delivered. The paperboys collect their papers and set off - usually on foot - soon after 7.00am so that the papers are delivered in time for the paperboy to go to school. The papers are pushed through the letter boxes, not just thrown onto porches (not many English houses have suitable porches anyway) so riding a bike is really not a good idea unless there are big gaps between houses. Some large towns and cities have an evening paper and this will also be handled by the newsagent but delivered by a different set of paperboys.
The paperboy is employed by the newsagent, not the publisher, and he does not collect money. The buyers of the papers have to call into the shop to pay the newsagent, who adds to the cover price a small delivery charge from which he pays the paperboy.
There is a difference with the free, weekly local papers. In these cases, where the paper has to be delivered to every house, the delivery boy (or girl) is employed by the publisher who arranges for a suitable supply to be dropped off every week. As these papers are free, there is no money to be collected.
This is but one of the small cultural differences between our two countries. One day I might start getting to grips with the biggie: how American elections are run. But that's for another day - maybe.
2 comments:
You're are correct. We dealt directly with the circulation department of the newspaper. The carriers in downtown areas walked their rounds... and had a much as twice as many customers as I did. My route only had about 75 homes over the almost seven miles.
Interesting differences. I also remember that different newspapers were folded differently depending on how the newspaper wanted it done. Now days my paper comes in a plastic bag which is wasteful, I think, and certainly not environmental.
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