Carriers OK With Limited Home Delivery, Detroit Newspapers Say

By: Mark Fitzgerald In all the industry talk about the radical plan of Detroit's two dailies to cease home delivery for much of the week, there's been little heard from those most affected by the change -- the carriers who will actually deliver the papers.

The first comment came from a former Gannett Co. circulation executive who had access to the planning in Detroit, and told the media consultant and "Reflections of a Newsosaur" blogger Alan Mutter that the carrier issue could be a problem.

"It's huge," Mutter told E&P. "People like you and me, we don't even think about that. But as [the former circulation executive] said, where are you going to get somebody who wants to work three days a week delivering newspapers? They're already hard to find and hard to retain now. And you're essentially asking [the Detroit papers] to go and hire part-time part-timers."

But Detroit's carriers don't object to the limited home delivery, said Janet Hasson, the senior vice president for circulation at Detroit Media Partnership, the agency that handles business, production and distribution operations for the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.

"In our initial conversations with them, they are all anxious to retain their routes," Hasson told E&P. "Obviously we are re-contracting with everyone over the routes. Their concern, of course, is on profitability of the routes, which is something we'll be negotiating in January and February."

With the Michigan economy in recession for going on two years, the current carrier turnover rate is very low, Hasson added. "I'm not too concerned about filling the routes," she said.

When the Detroit dailies eliminate Monday through Wednesday and Saturday home delivery, the routes will not change, Hasson said. "We're maintaining the same geographic footprint," she said. "We delivery to every county in Michigan."

Other circulation executives around the country said limiting home delivery days might actually help in recruiting and retaining carriers.

"The biggest problem is that this is a seven-day job, 365 days a year, and most of these people have full-time jobs they go to afterwards," said one big-city circulation director who asked for anonymity. "It's a grind, and having fewer days would probably help. Five days might be optimal, better than three," the director added.

Mike Johns, home delivery manager for the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, said he thought the Detroit move to limited home delivery "will probably help out in the long run."

"The majority of our carrier force has full-time jobs, so that would probably reduce churn and turnover of carriers, knowing they don't have to be there everyday," Johns said. He, too, said carriers would likely most welcome a five-day delivery schedule.

And one circulation executive who did not want his name used said limited home delivery might help Detroit Media Partnership in negotiating compensation with its independent contractor carriers. "With seven days, you've got to pay a kid of 'get out of bed' premium," he said.