Some diesel fumes must have leaked into the executive suite at Detroit Newspapers and driven the bosses mad. The decision-makers announced Tuesday that the daily newspaper reading habit was as dead at the domestic auto industry. I call it Motor City Madness.
Read the rest of the assessment here by John K. Hartman, professor of journalism at Central Michigan University, of the announcement this week to cut newspaper home delivery in Detroit.
While there is certainly robust criticism in newspaper circles globally, that the shift is happening puts home delivery onto the agenda – as if it was not already.
If I were a distribution newsagent I would be calling for a summit ASAP, in the next couple of weeks (not after summer) to look at the Detroit move from an Australia perspective. Such a newsagent only summit could also develop strategies around pursuing a fair return for home delivery effort.
Something has to hapen because those representing newsagents on this have failed for decades – up to an including last week. Use Detroit as a reason to come together and roll up the sleeves and decide what is best for newsagents and their families. Then pursue that with vigour.
They could and they should but they won’t. Greetings to my friend in QN.
I offered 5 new delivery models for discussion and got a blank stare. I will offer them again;
1. No home delivery – sell it as environmental.
2. Home delivery to aged and infirmed only.
3. Massive increase to sub agent outlets and deliver to those only.
4. Go back to small stalls on street corners for commuters to pick up on the drive to work.
5. START delivery at 0630 for home customers.
Just some thoughts to nake the delivery model endure, make it easier for the delivery agents and still make the product readily available and seen. There would be enough retired/injured people willing to sit a run a small stall for an hour each morning and with a day run as opposed to a night run, delivery agents would find it easier to staff the drivers positions.
I think the shorrt term will have to be delivery to subbies only and sell the change as carbon reduction/cost saving.
Brett
Your friend did not like the model I implemented even though it was working great…subagents collect from the shop and delivery customers collect from the shop (all ten of them). When he found out he canned it.
The issue in starting after 6:30 is that because of increased traffic it is both less safe, and slower.
I think many distribution agents would love to give up home delivery, and deliver to sub-agent’s only. I think personally that its a bit short-sighted, the drop in service also makes you less valuable.
SA Paperboy,
I think that you are right that the options I have provided are different but the facts are that the home delivery model as it stands now has a shelf life. If we don’t look foward we will get hit harder by whats out there.
Home delivery milk is no more and no one is complaining about lack of service. All they want is ease of access. More sub agents I think are the key.
Milk is a bad example. The change was prompted by the fact that the product required refrigeration and therefore direct customer contact, which is not available in an am delivery model.
It is also bad in that the change did not benefit or evolve the industry for all the round operators, it allowed the milk companies to cancel them all out.
So expecting us to adopt a model that all but makes us redundant is not understanding the problem. The publishers will go direct with all the good sub-agents and leave agents to handle the unprofitable ones should they wish.
There is value in home delivery. The problems are a symptom of the growing irrelevance of print media world wide. Agents need to take the distribution channel they have established and diversify and value add. Any agent, distribution or retail, that is relying too much on print media is going to have trouble in the future, we need to reduce our dependncy on papers like everyone else.
Hi, sa_paperboy.
Can you make some example of diversifying the distributon business beyond the print media?
I noticed a network of petrol stations and their online supermarkets. Since last year, the number of shops was doubled.
http://www.fishers.com.au/stores/
Can we, newsagents create a delivery network under a online present?
Cheers,
Sunny
I think the problem with the model stems not so much from the print media itself but rather the lack of support to the distribution agents. The ciustomers love having the paper delivered – they think its like having a valet service sometimes though. So the customer is not the problem (sic) nor the paper per se its the model which is unprofitable unless you have compact territory tenants and a large number of them. If you have a small run you are losing money (generally), if you have a regional run you are losing money (generally). Its hard to staff the runs, there is an elephant in the room called OH&S which is unaddressed and there is supplier or two that are large and very slow to move.
To summarise, the model is flawed and fated to fail as the suppliers don’t like it (it costs them money) and the distribution agents are also losing faith in it (they are also losing money). The customer loves it but the customer, like in the Milk analogy will just have to get used to it.
The support is not there from the publishers because they are heamorrghing world wide. It is directly linked to the decline of print media, if they were stronger and not feeling forced to shift online and to electronic formats then the money would be there to pay what is needed.
Look, I have detailed the same problems on this site as well that you have brought up here. To be succint though, you aren’t offering a home delivery model, you are basically saying get out. That’s fine, there are possibly many distribution agents that should get out.
For what its worth though, we don’t have problems getting staff.
@Sunny here is our website http://www.paperssa.com.au . So far our plans to diversfy product and services have stalled mostly for reasons I can’t discuss here.