How Demographic Variables Affect Newspaper Delivery

Abstract

Reliability of newspaper delivery is a serious concern for circulation managers because, unfortunately, failed newspaper delivery or other unsatisfactory performance from carriers is not uncommon. The literature has focused on news consumers' dependency on and uses for the media, and to some extent, their reactions to failed delivery, but an empirical assessment of reliability and satisfaction coupled with a comparison of some factors that may affect those measures is needed. Commentary and rhetoric from newspaper industry officials and jour nalism scholars raise more questions than they answer. Some say that youth carriers are unreliable, but others defend the little merchant system as more efficient, if not more reliable, than an all-adult carrier force. Some insist that costs can be cut and reliability boosted by having a smaller group of adult carriers deliver longer routes, but are the differences the result of carrier age or route length? Others say that reliability problems lie with a high rate of carrier turnover. They suggest that the longer a carrier holds a route, the better the service will be because reliability will improve with experience. Are young carriers less reliable than adults? What about carrier experience, he number of customers on a route, route length, or route density? This paper begins to examine how these factors relate to carrier reliability. Literature review In the 1940s, Bernard Berelson took one of the first looks at failed newspaper delivery. New York City's newspaper carriers had been on strike for 17 days, and the city was virtually without paper service when Berelson conducted his study to determine what people miss most about their paper when they can't get it.1 His results showed such strong reaction among a sample of 60 customers that a new genre of media research was born: dependency theory. As the name suggests, dependency theory indicates a reliance and a need for the media, as compared with a want or desire associated with uses and gratifications theory.2 About 13 years after Berelson's study, the New York City Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union struck again, leaving the city without papers for 19 days. Penn Kimball, a professor of journalism at Columbia University, used the situation to conduct a study following in Berelson's footsteps. He surveyed 164 New Yorkers who regularly read a paper, again asking the question: How much do people miss the newspaper in times of failed delivery? Kimball found the same strong dependency on newspaper. In 1998, Clyde Bentley, a doctoral student at the University of Oregon, had a local newspaper provide him with a daily list of customers who had been missed on the delivery route. He then called these people and asked 10 qualitative survey questions. Bentley's results suggest that people miss their paper very much when they don't get it. His and other contemporary studies have found the newspaper to be such a powerful component of media dependency theory that terms such as habit and ritual have been used to describe people's reliance.3 However, Berelson, Kimball and Bentley stopped short of exploring a solution. Because news consumers depend on reliable newspaper delivery, there is good reason to explore ways to provide that service. Most circulation concerns being discussed today seem to stem from a contentious debate concerning youth versus adult carriers. Several newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Belleville Democrat, Toronto Globe and Toronto Mail have eliminated youth carriers or are considering the change.4 Many cite safety concerns for the youth, but most also offer business reasons for the decision. Some contend that young carriers are not as reliable as adults.5 In 1984, the Toronto Globe and Mail had 3,400 youth carriers who were generating about 4,200 to 4,500 complaints each week. After switching to a streamlined delivery force of adult carriers with longer routes, the papers' 550 to 580 adult carriers produced 932 complaints weekly. …