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Thinning newspapers not unwrapping as well as newspapers from years ago

paperfoldedWith page counts in newspapers down from years ago when plastic wrap for home delivered newspapers was introduced, the product experience for readers today, on particularly thin newspaper days, is not ideal.

On Tuesday I saw this first-hand in a customer location. There on an unrelated matter, when they found out I owned a newsagency they brought out the newspapers delivered that morning and complained about how they look.

The people at this business are so frustrated with their experience that they say they will cancel home delivery and pick up what they want from the 7-Eleven down the road. That they would spend more for flat newspapers speaks to their frustration.

Thinking about newspaper thickness across the seven days of the week here in Melbourne, the Herald Sun would wrap well three maybe four days a week and The Age two days a week. I’d not thought about this before now but listening to the home delivery customers on Tuesday, I think they have a point.

While slimmer newspapers are easier to throw and less of a health risk for deliverers, the result for the reader of a wrapped product is not as good today as a few years ago – because of the reduced page count. This will need to be considered if delivering a good reader experience is a goal for publishers and newsagents.

The convenience of a home delivered product has the be considered about the state the product arrives in as a result of the wrapping for home delivery. This is a challenge to be considered.

Publishers pushed newsagents to introduce wrapping and they have control over the size of they product. Any solution would need to consider the

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Newspaper distribution

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  1. Shayne

    It gets worse in rural areas with local papers. Our local is often no more than 2 sheets of paper folded in half. Almost impossible to wrap and just as difficult to throw.

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  2. Mark Fletcher

    Shayne in that situation you’d almost have to fold it into a paper plane and deliver it that way.

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  3. Murray

    Didn’t know there was a health risk in throwing newspapers !! seriously ?

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  4. Dean

    Murray, there definitely is a health risk in throwing heavy papers. Once the Herald Sun gets down to low 20’s to a bundle my arm starts to get sore if I am doing home deliveries, at 17 I am getting tennis elbow.

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  5. Chris

    The newspaper would look better if they were hand rolled properly. The picture shows a hand rolled paper were it is folded in 2 and then rolled. If it is rolled straight from the edge it would present much better. One of my delivery drivers rolls them straight from the edge whilst one driver rolls with the fold as shown above. Our customers complained so we have had to retrain him in how to roll.
    Murray: on a given Sunday our driver would throw around 500-600 newspapers and News Ltd are notorious (or were) for very heavy newspapers which does injure your arm if you are throwing them repetitively.
    Could you also imagine throwing these if we had to flat wrap them. They would not make it over the car onto the verge!

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  6. shauns

    Oh how I miss rolling newspapers ……

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  7. jenny

    Shayne we used to roll our local paper with Tele or SMH and throw as one. Maybe you could do that with some of your deliveries.
    When the local was only a few pages at Xmas and machine wouldn’t roll them the boys folded them in half and rolled them but they are harder to open as there is all the excess plastic.

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  8. Murray

    We have had the same delivery driver for 35 years. Not one day off sick or any injuries. Some people need to harden up a little bit i think 🙂

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  9. Chris

    Murray: hardening up will not hold up in court I think if a staff member is injured at work!

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  10. Dennis Robertson

    Dean, you are as tough as the next bloke.

    Trying to throw with tennis elbow is not fun. Most say only rest will fix the problem although I found that 12 weeks of acupuncture without rest from throwing also fixed the problem. I’m not recommending it though as treatments will vary depending on a range of issues.

    What I would recommend to you is that you look at a number of things to see if you can determine what is causing the pain.

    Some things to consider could be

    – how hard are you throwing? if you are over-extending, then just try to get the papers on the property. Where you throw the paper is ultimately your decision, not the Publishers and not the clients.

    – Suitability of the vehicle. If you are throwing very heavy papers (say 850 grams to 1Kg+) from a low position over a high fence you will do damage if it’s a RH throw. The damage that occurs may only be minute, but it is incremental and will affect you over time. If you are using a jerky style action, the damage will occur much faster. A higher van might assist.

    – I have found it a less jerky action to throw heavy papers over high fences to the LHS as it’s easier to get better elevation. So if you think that is an issue for you, it may be worth considering a change to the run. There is no doubt that a smooth throwing action will mitigate the risk of injury.

    – Is a low seat or high/small window hampering your efforts for a smooth action throw.

    – Make sure you do a warm-up regimen before starting each throw to get the blood flowing. At 17, you probably don’t even feel the cold, but I do and often slap the RH shoulder to get it going so to speak.

    If you follow the link that Mark has put up for you and click on Nery Report, you will find a 38 page document that will assist give you an understanding of the known WH&S issues surrounding throwing heavy papers. In particular it references the risk of Tennis Elbow associated with backhand throws.

    I hope things improve for you.

    Chris, funnily enough, we have been throwing flat-wrapped papers for many years now and can get the job done just as efficiently as with rolled papers.

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  11. Ash Long

    I enjoy how the Los Angeles Times handles the delivery challenge. It’s flat. Wrapped in plastic. Delivered to the door. It respects the product, the purchase and the customer.

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  12. Chris

    Ash,
    For that to be done here would be quite a task. My average morning delivery run is 60km with the average house behind a fence and 10-20 metres from the road. For me to do what gets done in LA would take all day and if commission remained the same I would still only make $100. Can you see how this just would not work where I am located so not every deliver could be the same. The quality I provide is a guarantee the newspaper is always in the same spot (give or take a metre) with a replacement available if it is stolen.

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  13. Gary

    With the limited commission and delivery rates ($1.4 for 7 days).

    Why would anyone invest serious $$$ in new wrapping equipment for limited gains.

    After the cost of wrapping, driver wages, replacements for miss/stolen, bad debts. Who is actually happy with their net profit on Home delivery?

    I would actually prefer it if all HD customers brought from 7/11’s as the wages saved would be greater than the commission lost.

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  14. Amanda

    Seriously Murray???

    We stopped deliveries four years ago, but we had TWO drivers suffer serious shoulder injuries throwing Sunday Telegraphs.

    Hope it never happens to anybody, but if you are naive enough to think people should just “harden up”, then you will be “up a creek without a paddle” when it does happen, if you have not taken the correct steps to cover your won ass.

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  15. Amanda

    Ash Long, your comparison is pretty ordinary. Newsagents in Australia are paid $0.20 to deliver a newspaper.

    You might do this in Los Angeles where the population of over 20million people would deem that the population density is greater than any city in Australia…. heck that is half this countries population in one city!

    So, ask yourself Ash, would you fold a newspaper, wrap it in plastic and then hand deliver the newspaper to a door in the middle of the night rain, hail or shine for $0.20 ??? … I wouldn’t either!

    4 likes

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