{"id":577,"date":"2026-06-20T06:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=577"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:08:22","slug":"your-vanishing-paperboy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=577","title":{"rendered":"Your Vanishing Paperboy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span> was struck by the many fun reactions to my column last Saturday on \u201c<\/span>Your Vanishing Newspaper<\/span>.\u201d One reaction I didn\u2019t expect was the readers celebrating the decline if not disappearance of newspapers because of their left-wing biases. Then again, in a publication like ours, focused on politics and ideology, I suppose I shouldn\u2019t be surprised by that reaction. Still, I wasn\u2019t thinking about that. Now that I have thought about it, I\u2019ll make just a quick observation:<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more MLB Does the Robot<\/a><\/p>\n

In the old days, because there were multiple print dailies in major cities, you often had the option of picking a more conservative or Republican-leaning newspaper over a liberal one. Admittedly, too often you had a choice between a liberal paper or a moderate\/liberal one. But you frequently had a legitimate choice between a \u201cDemocrat\u201d or \u201cRepublican\u201d paper. Many townsfolk read both, expecting the slant and reading accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Big cities aside, smalltown\u00a0newspapers were generally more conservative. My hometown paper, the <\/span>Butler Eagle<\/span><\/i>, was Republican. And either way, you didn\u2019t rely on your local paper for national political news. Most people read the local paper for local news, sports, classifieds, letters to the editor, obituaries, community events, photos, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, some readers of my column noted that a big problem with local print dailies (including those still barely surviving) is that their national news coverage is quickly outdated and trumped by online dailies. Well, that\u2019s true\u2014if you\u2019re going to your local newspaper for coverage of, say, Iran or Ukraine. But who does that?<\/span><\/p>\n

On a separate point, another reader noted that \u201cWhat killed most of those papers wasn\u2019t politics but labor costs and the refusal of the unions to permit any automation. So everyone lost their jobs, much better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Precisely. I noted the meltdown in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s with the <\/span>Pittsburgh Press<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Pittsburgh Post-Gazette<\/span><\/i>. It was based on labor-union nonsense, the same junk that destroyed the steel industry in our area. And more recently with the <\/span>Post-Gazette<\/span><\/i> (i.e., this year), it was labor issues once again that nearly destroyed the paper entirely.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that aside, there was another subject raised by a couple readers that really struck me, and I\u2019ll be surprised if anyone cheers \u201cGood riddance!\u201d to this. That would be the vanishing not of newspapers but newspaper boys.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, paperboys. Remember those? Of course, you do. How many of you reading today delivered newspapers as a boy? It was probably your first job. It was for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I delivered the <\/span>Butler Eagle<\/span><\/i>. Each morning, the delivery truck stuffed a stack of newspapers in a large circular metal container at the end of our driveway. I would grab the stack and shove them in a huge bag with a large shoulder strap. Like other paperboys, I was just that, a boy\u2014a young kid\u2014and those bags were heavy. You had to build up the muscle to get used to hauling around that weight. It could be doubly, triply difficult on heavy snow days when you trekked across massive fields in boots and coat. And no matter what the weather, you delivered the newspaper on time. Customers expected it, whether the paper was tossed sidearm to their doorstep, or placed between their doors, or inside a screened-in porch.<\/span><\/p>\n

This taught young boys a sense of responsibility\u2014a work ethic. The paperboy not only collected newspapers but also the money for the subscriptions, usually provided as cash in envelopes from the customer. The cash always included coins. Credit cards were not used. If you did your job well, you got tips.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How common was newspaper delivery? There wasn\u2019t a house in my neighborhood that didn\u2019t get a paper. Not one. Everyone read the local newspaper. Indeed, that\u2019s quite the contrast to today. Some readers reacting to my last column hailed the convenience of getting their news today online, via their phone or laptop. Sure, but how many citizens of your town read the local newspaper even electronically? Not nearly as many who once read it in print. That\u2019s why those papers are vanishing. In the old days, everyone read it in print and paid for it. And it wasn\u2019t expensive because there were so many subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Today, those papers are online and struggling to get subscribers behind their paywalls. And they\u2019re not getting them. They\u2019re going bankrupt. They\u2019re vanishing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, I heard from several of you who were paperboys. We swapped stories about our adventures. My friend Lee told me about the moment he carefully contemplated crossing a raging creek of ice-cold water on a fallen tree to shorten his time one freezing winter day. He stared at the tree as he decided whether to risk his 10-year-old life. What did he do? You guessed it. He walked across, high above the water. He didn\u2019t die, but he damned well could have.<\/span><\/p>\n

Could you imagine if his parents knew?<\/span><\/p>\n

That story reminded me of a friend of mine. His last name was Fleming, and thus we called him \u201cFlem\u201d (my wife and daughters find that \u201cgross\u201d). I sometimes walked his paper route with him. One day he ventured across an ice patch that wasn\u2019t very thick. Flem was a very heavy kid. The ice cracked and he fell in. Fortunately, I was there to pull him out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did his parents ever know? Of course, not. They never knew anything. Gosh, if only they knew half of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, today, most parents wouldn\u2019t let their kids deliver newspapers. They would fear (not wrongly) weirdos and perverts and predators. Nonetheless, we delivered in those days, and we were very young.<\/span><\/p>\n

One reader, Phil, told me that he was eight years old when he delivered the afternoon edition of the <\/span>Buffalo News<\/span><\/i>. No fear. He rode his bike from house to house. Personally, I walked my route, because it was more rural, but I could\u2019ve benefited from a bike in trying to escape the angry German Shepherd that growled and chased after me. The Neanderthal owners refused to tie up the monster. I started placing their paper in the mailbox at the end of the driveway, which they didn\u2019t like. The delivery department at the <\/span>Butler Eagle<\/span><\/i> intervened. The two people acted like cavemen, utterly unsympathetic to a boy getting attacked by their stupid animal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ridiculous as that experience was, it was a life lesson for a young boy, namely: people are jackasses. Getting through life\u2014and a job\u2014means learning to deal with idiots.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many paperboys exist today? Not many. If you ask AI, it says that paperboys are virtually extinct. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s true. The New York state legislature last year passed a child-labor law banning newspaper deliverers under the age of 12. That would have killed Phil\u2019s job with the <\/span>Buffalo News<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a loss. These were nice jobs that taught boys a sense of responsibility. I would like to see a statistic showing the percentage of males for whom paperboy was their first job. I can\u2019t think of another first job more common to guys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alas, with the vanishing daily print newspaper, paperboys are vanishing as well. And that\u2019s nothing to celebrate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Hillary vs. Jill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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