My first Ask Roger Anything questions come from my dear friend Cecily:
Did you have a newspaper route in your youth?
I had a route delivering the Evening and Sunday Press in Binghamton, NY. I’m not positive of the time frame, but it would have had to have been after July 1965 because I subsequently joined the Capitol Record Club. One of the first things I purchased was Beatles VI, which came out that month.
Moreover, I would have had to have been delivering the paper in December 1966 because my father helped me on Sunday Christmas morning, something he never did before or after.
I didn’t make a whole heck of a lot of money. My route ran from the corner of Oak Street and Clinton at a barbershop to a large apartment complex called the Dwight block on Front Street and McDonald Ave., which surrounded a Front Street store called Henry’s. So monetarily, I did OK on Clinton, took a bath financially on the Dwight block, but did very well on McDonald Ave, from which you can see the Chenango River.
(BTW, the newspaper delivers don’t have to try to collect the money anymore; the newspapers do that.)
I should note that I inherited the route from a guy from my church named Walter Jones, who was a couple of years older than me. He was my parents’ godson. His grandparents, the Whitfields, were my godparents. His aunt (his mother’s sister), Mrs. Hamlin, was the organist at my church and tried to teach me how to play piano.
First Ward
We were all in a very small geographic area. Walter lived on the corner of Everett and Elm, one block from Daniel Dickinson School, which we attended. Trinity AME Zion church was about three blocks from his house and a block from mine.
Not incidentally, I later inherited Walter’s job as a page at the Binghamton Public Library under the guidance of a woman named Beccye Fawcett, who attended my church. I believe that she was the first black librarian in Binghamton.
Walter’s daughter is Amanda Jones, who is a well-regarded composer in the television and film industry.
If so, did you have one of those strapped canvas carriers, especially for Sunday editions?
Yes, I did have one of those, but I seldom used it, and never on Sunday; the thing hurt my shoulder. Instead, as I indicated recently, I often used a shopping cart.
There are reports that even as newspapers are delivered, and fewer are in the carrier, it seems to get HEAVIER!
How can that occur?
I had not heard that, and I can’t find any verification. Based on the last ones I’ve seen, the merged Binghamton newspaper feels unsubstantial even on Sunday. Moreover, newspapers are generally shrinking in width.
CHQ
When my wife and I went to Chautauqua in the summer of 2024, journalist Margaret Sullivan noted that at the end of the 20th century: “At the time, newspapers were wildly profitable because advertisers had few ways to target their potential customers. But competition, first from Craigslist, hurt the bottom. Eventually, Facebook, Google, and others circulated the expensive-to-create news content for free, and this gutted newsrooms.”
Print subscriptions have decreased since 1990, though online subscriptions have been rising.
Here’s some trivia: “The most massive single issue of a newspaper was the 14 September 1987 edition of the Sunday New York Times, which weighed more than 5.4kg (12lb) and contained 1,612 pages.
Based on ads, finding people to deliver the paper has been harder, even as fewer people buy the physical object. Our delivery people are adults with cars because the geographic range of physical subscribers is much larger than when I was young.
Even though it’s not the advertising Mecca it used to be, potential LLCs must still run ads in New York State. The newspaper is still the place for obituaries, especially on Sundays, even though they are expensive and can often be accessed online.