Distribution: Newspapers

Here we look at how printed material in the form of newspapers and periodicals reach our homes. Browsing through the latest issues on the newsagent’s shelf for something we don’t normally read is not a pastime localnet would try to change. Rather it is the regular, subscription or standing order style of delivery to the home that we address here.

This section discusses:

Existing Provision

What

The vast bulk of the deliveries we are considering here are the morning newspapers – and their somewhat more obese cousins, the weekend papers. Evening papers are rarely delivered – most being picked up on commuters’ way home. However, many magazines and periodicals, trade journals and so on are also delivered in the mail today. These range from weekly to quarterly in frequency

How

Daily newspapers have traditionally been pushed through the letterbox early in the morning so that commuters can read them over breakfast or on their way to work. Reliability, quality and timeliness of delivery are often quite variable. Newspaper delivery is not a long term career for most of its practitioners. Hence my own experience varies from long periods where the paper arrives as regular as clockwork, is beautifully folded and pushed through the letter box (albeit straight into the mouth of aforementioned dog), to erratic, usually late (if at all), crumpled and soggy pulp left on the doorstep. I suspect this is a consequence of deliveries switching from conscientious retiree to fourteen year old on a bike.

The American practice of putting each newspaper in a plastic bag and throwing it in the general direction of the house seems a particularly risky method of delivery. The number of plastic bags wasted in this way does not even bear thinking about.

Sunday papers in the UK have long been engaged in an ever-escalating arms-race to see which one has the most sections and/or pages. As a consequence the Sunday Times weighed XXX this week and is no doubt responsible for the reason our deliveries at the weekend require a car rather than a moped as is used on weekdays. This also makes them impossible to push through a letter box so increasing the delivery time and hassle and the risk of them being damaged before they reach the subscriber’s hands.

Volume and Frequency

In many rural areas there is no paper delivery service or at least not one that arrives before the reader has to leave in the morning – at which point he might as well buy one on the way to work and save the delivery charges. This may not seem like a significant point but for someone who likes to read the paper each day, having it in their hands in time to catch a bus or train to work – and therefore read it on the way – can give them back a half hour of their day and hence might make the difference between deciding to travel on public transport versus driving to work.

Periodicals are normally delivered in the regular post and hence contribute to the total delivery load early in the morning even though they are much less time critical than most other post.

Financial Model

Having one’s paper delivered normally entails a delivery charge which can be a significant percentage of the overall price and is increasing as labour and fuel costs rise.

Most periodicals are significantly cheaper when bought on subscription than at the newsagents. The current postal costs are obviously much less onerous on the publisher than the margins added by the distributor, the retail store and the costs of returns of unsold items.

Providers

Most paper deliveries are provided by the local village or neighbourhood shop or mini-market while periodicals are delivered by the mail service.

Trends

The demise of the printed page has been forecast since long before we all had personal computers and internet access but online and downloadable equivalents still aren’t close to usurping the printed word. If certainly feels like the humble newspaper will struggle on even after printed books have been consigned to museums.
In fact, technology now allows and hence encourages even small clubs and societies to print impressive looking bulletins and booklets for their members. Larger organisations exploit technology to customise catalogues and brochures for specific market sectors or even individual customers. I regularly receive a stationery catalogue from Viking Office Supplies for example. It has my name printed on the cover and includes special offers based on my previous purchase. My address is printed on the back and it arrives in the post without an outer envelope or bag. Not using outer packaging is the one thing I will praise them for – as the catalogue, of over a hundred pages, invariably goes straight in the recycling box as I always search for goods online rather than use a paper catalogue these days.

With Localnet

What

The distinction between a piece of mail and a newspaper, magazine, periodical or other printed material is blurring and is immaterial to the Localnet delivery service. A pile of identical newspapers arriving at a LocalHub would be no different to a selective mail shot.

How

All forms of printed material can be delivered to the door in a PaperBox and all can be collected for recycled afterwards. The PaperBox has two compartments, one for mail deliveries and collection and the other, larger compartment for printed material deliveries and waste paper collection.

If a periodical or magazine is delivered on a later delivery round, it may be placed in an  OmniBox if one is being used to deliver other goods. This reduces the space required on these rounds – where space is at a premium as many customers will be taking delivery of groceries and other goods using these larger boxes.

Volume and Frequency

The urgency and frequency of delivery depends entirely on the publication. Morning newspapers are delivered in the same box as the post on the first delivery round of the day so as to arrive at least fifteen minutes before the recipient would have to leave the house in order to catch the delivery van on its return route to the LocalHub.

Sunday morning deliveries may not be quite as early – allowing the Localnet staff a bit of a lie in as well as their customers.

Evening papers could easily and cost effectively be delivered on the last round of the day and this may give these publications a new lease of life. There tends to be much less choice in an area with a single local paper being published in the afternoon. The London Evening Standard is a good example. The time between publication and delivery is also very short so it may be simpler for the delivery van driver to simply take a pile of papers on his round and push these through letterboxes or leave them in Delivery Bays without having to sort them into PaperBox first.

Anything published less frequently than daily is naturally less time critical and can be included in the next delivery – whether that is a later PaperBox or an  OmniBox.

Financial Model

The cost of delivery should probably be paid by the recipient and should certainly be no more than is currently charged as there is no longer a need for a separate journey to the property.

If Localnet incorporates the postal service, this raises an interesting paradox. A customer subscribing to a magazine will typically receive it inside a polythene outer wrapper in the mail – and get a substantial discount off the cover price in return for (typically) a twelve month up-front payment.  The same customer, placing a standing order with their local newsagent – or, now, LocalHub – would receive the same magazine at cover price plus a delivery charge (overall quite a lot more than the annual subscription) but will receive it in the same box. The one arriving in the mail will have been prioritised and delivered in the (challenging) first delivery while the more expensive one will typically be delivered later that day. While there is certainly an incentive for the publisher to reward commitment and up-front payment, a single, more consistent model would certainly simplify distribution as well as eliminate the outer packaging. Customers should really be offered a sliding scale with increasing discount off the cover price for increasing commitment. A fair compromise would be that if you want to pay for each issue as it arrives and be able to cancel any time up to, say a week before the next issue, you pay the cover price and get free delivery in return for having a standing order for the publication. Commit and pay in advance for three, six or twelve months to receive increasingly attractive discounts of the list price – but in all cases the publication arrives in your delivery box without the need for individual addressing or outer packaging.

Providers

The current wholesale distribution network that delivers bales of papers to our newsagents will simply deliver these to LocalHubs instead. The way in which these bundles are tied together may need to change to facilitate more efficient and reliable automatic processing but otherwise it's business as usual for them.

The local newsagent may be put out of business by the localnet - but hopefully would be involved in providing the convenience store features at the LocalHub instead. Those currently employed delivering papers often do this as a part-time or top-up job - and many could well become part-time staff for LocalHubs, helping on the very busy early morning rounds when a team of two would be helpful on each van. As the vans run back towards school bus stops at the end of this round, there is nothing to prevent schoolchildren from working in this way (a managed amount - maybe one or two mornings a week) as part of gaining valuable work experience.

Evolution

If the Sunday Times continues its evolutionary path towards ever heavier editions, it will have to be charged at double the rate of other papers which continue to fit within a single PaperBox. It will be a long time before we wean ourselves off printed magazines. We all enjoy them and, if we can avoid disproportionate delivery charges plus close to one hundred percent recycling through a scheme such as the Localnet, we should all be able to continue reading them for many decades yet.

In the meantime, the growing sophistication and commercial viability of print-on-demand services means that a colour printing and binding system can be installed at each LocalHub. A huge range of specialist, niche and foreign publications can then be made available more cost effectively by printing one or two copies as needed by local residents than by having these picked, packed and shipped - half-way round the world in some cases - to the LocalHub. The same print server can be used to offer residents a range of short-run printing, copying and binding services with delivery to them or straight to their customers.

 

Comparison

The table below assesses the impact of localnet on this service on a scale of -5 to +5 (details here)

  Existing services As part of localnet Score
Scope Morning Papers in some areas. Morning, evening and periodicals in all Localnet areas. +2
Frequency Early morning (if you’re lucky) Morning guaranteed plus midday and  evening most areas

+2
Security Barely applicable. Barely applicable. 0
Convenience Good – if you can get delivery. Good, consistent. +1
Cost Delivery charges reflect dedicated staff and journey. Marginal cost over mail network so can be more competitive. +1
Quality Variable over long term and when regular staff absent. Can be late, wet and/or crumpled. Consistent, protected in box. +2
Carbon Footprint Good where delivered on foot or bicycle but car increasingly used and stop-start not optimal. Electric, shared delivery with mail and other goods. +2
Time Paper bill to be settled e.g. monthly. Billing integrated in overall Localnet. Line item per publication. +1
Resources Used Outer packaging for periodicals via mail. No need for outer packaging. +1
Reuse & Recycling Not part of service. Easy to put previous day’s paper in box you took today’s from. Reward per kg recycled. +2
Landfill Waste Negligible. Negligible. 0
Other Differentiators Provision costs largely shared with mail shot delivery.

Print on demand at LocalHubs for lower volume publications and to provide printing, copying and binding services for home-workers. 		+2

Services