As a former journalist, I’ve had a hard time watching the newspaper industry’s continuing decline. Across the United States, papers are struggling to handle the significant drop in advertising revenue that’s taken place over the 12 years or so.
None of the four daily papers I toiled at during my career are doing particularly well at present. Nowhere is that more evident than at the last paper I worked for, in Columbia, SC.
When I joined the paper as a banking reporter in 1999, it had a business staff of seven, an assistant business editor and a business editor. Today, it has a business editor and approximately 1-1/2 business reporters.
I say “approximately” because the two individuals assigned to write business stories will often find themselves covering non-business subjects, as well.
But things could be worse.
Take the Orange County Register, which this week asked its employees, including its reporters and editors, to deliver the paper’s Sunday edition over the next few weeks.
The California newspaper, which has three Pulitzer Prizes to its credit and is one of California’s largest dailies, started the initiative after a switch in distributors wreaked havoc on home delivery, leaving some routes uncovered and thousands of papers undelivered, according to Slate.
The Register asked employees to help deliver the Sunday edition of the paper until its carrier woes are worked out.
As compensation for the task, which involves sorting and delivering 500-600 papers on a full route and can take as much as six hours to complete, employees can earn $150 in Visa gift cards. A smaller route will earn a $100 Visa gift card.
According to Slate, Register employees likely weren’t in the best of moods even before being asked to help with delivery.
“The paper’s parent company – Freedom Communications – has fallen on hard economic times, resulting in layoffs and lawsuits,” according to the online publication, adding that in September, the beleaguered company even sold the Register’s headquarters.
The Cotton Boll Conspiracy 
Wow! Just wow. We kicked up a fuss about having to write as features, never mind delivering newspapers. Just amazing. Don’t you have newspaper girls and boys in your part of the world? I’m sure a pal of mine (no girl, 50+) got a job doing it a year or so ago.
They have adults that deliver paper (paperboys and papergirls are a thing of the past), but apparently whomever took over the distribution of this paper couldn’t get their act together for the Sunday delivery. If I was a writer at that paper I think I’d be scooping up the extra work *and* sending out my resume.
Is the gift voucher a tax free thing? It’s a bi of a nuisance when all you do is spend on food and bills. I don’t think my vegman would accept a VISAgift voucher …
Oh, I have a feeling it will have to be counted as taxable income, but I believe you get the entire $150 or $100 up front. Over here, most grocery stores accept credit cards, particularly in the Los Angeles area, so that shouldn’t be an issue. The company must be getting some sort of trade off with VISA for the cards.
At one paper I worked at, our year-end bonus was a gift certificate for a turkey at a local store. The paper had agreed to discount the cost of advertising for the store in exchange for the gift certificates, so it was a pretty inexpensive deal for the paper.
how crazy is that!?
Well, I will say that at least the paper is paying its staff to deliver the papers …