Where's Christian Bale when you need him?
Over at One Man's Trash, Norman tackles a subject very close to my heart: the difficulty of getting newspapers delivered in Richmond. It shouldn't surprise regular readers of this blog that I don't subscribe to the Times-Dispatch. I take the Washington Post instead, which is the newspaper I grew up reading and one to which I used to contribute frequently before Christian rock ate my life.
The Post has repaid this loyalty by contracting its Richmond operations to a series of numbskulls. Frequently, my paper doesn't appear. Or I get half of it. Or it comes so late I've already read it online. Earlier this year, after a particularly bad spell, I started calling and complaining every time the carrier screwed up, i.e., every day. I don't even need to look up the customer service number anymore.
I've had more luck with Post customer service than Norman (whose Wall Street Journal is DELIVERED by the T-D!); they're sympathetic and always offer to credit my account, and I'm pretty sure my frequent complaints got the first carrier fired. Now I have someone marginally better, though they still seem to disappear some weekends, or deliver my Sunday paper at noon (I have a kid and hence one hour on that day to read the paper; get it to me before 7 or it's useless).
Last year I tried tipping my carrier well to try to improve service; this had no effect. This year, I'm torn--should I tip the new guy as generously? Service has improved of late, but not for long enough to make me confident. One day when I called, for instance, customer service checked and found the carrier hadn't even picked up that day's stack of papers (for some reason, no other customers had called in). They filed an "action memo," and things have been relatively smooth since.
For all the talk of newspapers disappearing, I'm sure I'm not the only one who prefers to read his paper on paper; online I have to choose stories and don't stumble across them when I'm flipping pages. Also, newspapers are still quite profitable, in the 20 percent range. But I agree with Norman's genral thesis--if newspapers can't solve a problem as simple as getting their product into the hands of people who eagerly await them each day, they'll have no business bitching about Google eating their lunch.
posted by Andrew Beaujon at 12:09
5 Comments:
Amen. I, too, take the Post, though I do myself a service and pick it up from my local 7-Eleven (usually on my way to work) -- I had gotten into the bad habit of buying the TD as well, but recently reverted to the money- and time-saving practice of perusing it online. There just isn't enough heft to the TD to justify buying the paper; not only do they fail on the broader standards of global (news, politics, culture), but they've yet to prove to me that they have the ability to do the in-depth work required of a genuine community-driven newspaper.
I don't know how far I'd trust the paperboy's consistency, Andrew. When I was a young paper-delivering rocker, my readers got their evening News Leader anywhere between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. It all depended on how much I could precollect, and how well I did each day at Joust and Dragonslair.
You get the Post?? Their website says that there's no delivery for my area (Northside). How did you subscribe (online, by phone, etc.)?
The website may be right! I subscribed online, I think, but you should call the number to be sure.
Incidentally, I put in a suspend request for the days we were away for Thanksgiving (Thursday-Sunday). The paper came every day we were gone, and today the suspension seems to have taken effect. Good times.
I spoke to them and they said no one in my area has requested service, although it's available. Wish me luck--I had the same problems with the NY Times and I imagine it's the same carrier.
this is a regional phenom, as getting the Post consistently delivered in Baltimore is seemingly impossible. Of course, they also deliver it when you don't want it, which is interesting.
The real issue here, of course, is that there IS NO PAPERBOY. Newspapers are no longer delivered by young neighborhood kids. And without that local pre-pube infrastructure, to whom the measly earnings of a paper route actually amount to something, the system just falls apart.
And don't get me started on the fact that they just replaced 90 percent of the cashiers at the supermarket with those self-scanning machines. What a ripoff.
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