One heritage company has a product that is difficult to deliver over a large land area , and another company delivers over a large area but has nothing to deliver. “A day late and a dollar short” is a derogatory expression that somehow became acceptable in the newspaper business .
Another hair brained idea from yours truly. A letter from our company to your home , everyday. Everyone likes to get a letter .How far would Pinerest take the idea of a daily newspaper letter to our customers?
A radical idea , go back to evening delivery for the first days of the week. Deliver todays news , today .Make a deal with the struggling postal service to take over home delivery of the newspaper .Major city newspapers spend about $2million a year for each day of delivery. Any part of that would save for one and add to another .
Short press runs , smaller volumes of paper , thinner papers for the first few days of the week but still wide area coverage might make this feasible .Also it would allow for a dramatic reorientation of how our business delivers information. Rethink delivery , rethink content in a world made for the internet . Display advertizing still rules as far as revenue.
There was a news item this week about how Canada Post is dealing with the new reality of fewer letters to deliver .It seems the internet has caused fewer people to make use of their service. Sound familiar.
This is a very old home delivery service with a long and distinguished history and it needs new ideas . It seems letter delivery is falling fast but parcel delivery is rising but is not making enough money to cover the shortfall of lost mass coverage business . Most people get 2 letters a month , the rest bills . ( Holiday cards are likely inflators of the average)
It is ironic that new addresses are rising but mail volume is falling and Canada Post is loosing money big time .
Interestingly the same is true for newspapers , and home delivery is a big part of the problem. Hum. One heritage company has a product that is difficult to deliver over a large area , and another company delivers over a large area but has nothing to deliver. Reduce duplication with fuel saving implications. Just bundle and add a list of addresses , would be very few per route as it stands now with letters. Many new areas are served by super mail boxes making this idea even more attractive.
The biggest insurmountable challenge for newspapers is the paper product delivers yesterday news today . This wasn't always the case . With evening delivery newspapers were able to deliver news on the same day . Evening delivery posted end of game results for sporting events ,covered more events after 6pm where local TV news usually begins to fade , also overnight,early morning , closing time MVC's , crime and fires were also covered , same day . It would also begin overnight coverage in a serous way for the online product.This is enhanced LOCAL coverage .
Way back when , presses would start at noon and deliver papers by 5pm the same day offering the coverage of some morning events .Re-plates were papers that were delivered to newspaper boxes downtown for breaking news only .When a late morning assassination attempt was made on Ronald Reagan ,North American papers had a re-plate edition on the street the same afternoon.
In my opinion the beginning of loss of circulation began with morning delivery . There have been many stages to circulation loss. Morning delivery was introduced to Canada by the Toronto Sun , it reduced the work day hours ( eliminating coverage and staff reporters photographers , editors overnight ) and was thought to be advantage to advertisers ( mostly an advantage to train riding commuters) . It was essentially a cost cutting move. Many papers started their first Sunday papers ( offereing them free) with savings form reduced coverage hours during the week.
Many news and sports events could not be covered due to early deadlines of morning delivery , and shorter coverage days. No late sports or, over time ,nor west coast final scores ,overnight news, nor next morning coverage began a slide that offered customers less . As it turns out few people have time to read the paper in the morning and by the time they got home other news sources had already provided the punchline to many of the stories .Loss of manufacturing jobs over decades took away first edition box sales .( first edition was a short first stage delivery so morning workers could pick up a paper on their way to work from boxes , before 7am.
The short press run and thin papers for the first few days of the week might be favourable to a deal with Canad Post . Just an idea .
Internet and paper coverage would truly be continuous , an adaption the newspaper business invented but not truly embraced in a long time .It would create a chance to truly re-invent the paper product. Back to the future .
Topic: Another Hair Brained , Newspaper Saving Idea (Read 1047 times)