I can't remember the last time I saw a kid with the bags on his handlebars throwing newspapers.

 

Same here. It's been a long time.

Now, there's some old fat guy (no, not me!) that drives around and tosses the paper into the driveway or (most of the time) into the 'swale' or ditch beside the driveway.

It seem to me that (around here) that kids are 1.) either too lazy to take on a paper route to make money, or 2.) they are too scared to go around on a bicycle at oh-dark-thirty delivering papers.

 

You'll still see kids hand delivering papers out in small rural towns, sometimes.

But practically never in a city or even a mid-sized town, not since some time in the eighties. That's when something inexplicable happened to society. A newspaper businessman once explained to me why it stopped - they used to drop off a bundle of papers on the sidewalk, near the paper boy's house or on a street corner at the beginning of his route. Then the paper boy would prep his load and go do his deliveries. Except some time in the eighties, something changed and the bundles began being vandalized or stolen.

There was a time, in my lifetime, that even in a large city you could leave bottles of milk on doorsteps and they would go untouched. But then something changed and you couldn't even leave a bundle of newsprint on the sidewalk without it being vandalized or stolen. So they stopped doing that.

 

Our local paper stopped using kids to deliver when it felt it had to stop being an evening paper and become a morning paper to compete with the L. A. Times. It's been years since the paper was 'porched' and it's still no competition for the Times.

 

I'm surprised that any newspaper is still in business. With the price of fuel, who is going to haul around paper?

 

my paper boy still rides a bicycle or walks every day. The town i live in has 40,000 people. the only time he is in a vehicle is when his parents help him because the weather is pretty bad,snowing or raining hard.

 

I still buy two daily papers in the morning, one from the county seat, and one is a statewide... otherwise I'd have to wait until the mail got to my house at around 3pm to read them. But the Sunday edition of the statewide paper gets delivered, and up until a year or so ago, the guy who did it carried them in a sack slung over his shoulder and riding a moped. And he always got it here by 7am. Now there's a man & woman delivering it in a car, and it's been as late as 9am getting here.

 

We stopped having a "paper boy" about 15 years ago. We had a good one, too. Polite, prompt, good kid. Boy Scout. His dad would sometimes accompany him on his collection rounds and talk with the customers (neighbors). Like Horsepuller said, the local paper (I think we live in the same neck of the woods) went to morning delivery by someone in a car. I canceled my subscription when the new delivery person stopped delivery because I was a few days late with the payment.

 

I started in 1959 delivering the T.V. Guide, and delivered newspapers unitl I graduated from high school in 1968. Made some good, steady money. At one time had 4 routes, which almost gave me a nervous breakdown in 7th grade. The big pain was collecting the money, and constantly going back out to try and catch someone who was never home. Also learned at a very early age about deadbeats. Now the small town I'm from (been 5000 people for the last 50 years) delivers the paper by mail (never had a Sunday paper). In some respects, not a bad idea, but I'm betting the postman has other thoughts.

 

My morning rag is always at the door by the time I get out of bed...usually by 6 AM...for the last three years it has been delivered by the same young lady...usually on her bike...Saturdays pulling a wagon loaded with the weekend edition. Only on the nastiest winter days does her mom transport her. Needless to say...with service like this...she gets very generous tips...she deserves them!!!

 

Yes, people steal even stole "free" newspaper bundles in the mid 1980s. I bought my 1st house with money I earned as a paperboy both walking and delivering from a car in the 1980s. Though as a young kid I weighed about 180 pounds, took martial arts, and carried 1/2 of a pool cue and a brick in my bag, so I could handle most dogs and perverts if they surprised me since I was jumpy anyways.

I wouldn't let my kids do a paper route in the city or anywhere else now unless I went along armed. My county has at least 300 sex offenders. These perverts are not beyond grabbing kids from bus stops, never mind on a paper route where the kid shows up at the same time day after day.

I think perverts prevent many parents from letting their kids deliver newspapers.

 

our local paper can only be picked up at the print center or what ever its called... that probably limits it some. plus i think ct has all kinds of laws about under aged workers and such that probably dosen't help.

 

I get the paper 4 days a week, it costs me 4.25 a month, and thats for someone to deliver it in a car, I Dont really see how its an economical job.

 

I live in a MAJOR city, and our local paper is still delivered by local kids. Our kid pulls a wagon behind his bike.

 

Seems like it's all older folks and retireds doing the deliveries here, now. When my usual delivery person brings my paper to my step and puts it inside the little "house" I made and installed where I can reach it from inside the house, she shows up anywhere from 4 am to 6 am. When she's taking a week off, the paper will end up almost anywhere in the carport, including under the car. And that reminds me.. she's due a tip for her kindness.

I can't begin to remember when I last saw a kid on a bike or walking, to deliver newspapers.