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Remember when?

Eagle Tribune delivery boys ACHC Collection #1997.528.34

Once upon a time, newspapers were delivered by paperboys (and sometimes, in some places, by papergirls.) They weren’t flung haphazardly from a car but put into a newspaper box or delivered to a doorstep or, yes, sometimes flung on a driveway or lawn by a local boy on a bike or on foot, doing the route in his neighborhood.

It was a simpler time - before labor restrictions and union rules of who was an employee and who was an independent contractor.

A paperboy is different from a newsboy or newspaper hawker. Hawkers were boys who stood on the street corners in bigger cities and sold newspapers, or tried to sell them, to passersby. Newsboys generally were in big cities where there were multiple daily newspapers and competition was fierce to sell papers.

A boy on a bicycle with a Toronto Star newspaper carrier bag. Whitby, Ontario photo courtesy of WikimediaCommons - Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian law. No restrictions on use.

Delivering newspapers was often a young person's first job, done before or after school. The question as to who was the first paperboy, is a matter of perspective.

Benjamin Franklin is credited sometimes as the first paperboy, for delivering his brother’s newspaper, the New England Courant in 1721 in Philadelphia, when he was a teenager. However, Ben Franklin wasn’t hired, or paid, by his brother to deliver the Courant. He was doing it out of familial obligation!

By all other considerations, the first paperboy was 10-year-old Barney Flaherty, hired in 1833 after answering an ad in The New York Sun. Publisher, Benjamin Day, had posted:

“A number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper. A liberal discount is allowed to those who buy to sell again.”

Day was so impressed by 10-year old Barney Flaherty’s sincerity, that Barney was hired, in spite of his age.

Delivery of newspapers by young carriers saw its heyday in 1930s to 1990s. For many children over the age of 10, it was the first paying job available to them. It was a way for them to earn extra money and experience the work world.

Paper delivery was usually done by young boys. The 1920 Census of Population recorded only 193 girls among the 20,706 news carriers aged ten to fifteen years old. The Uniform Child Labor Act, approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1930, authorized the sale of newspapers only by boys over nine years of age. Many cities and states would not allow young girls to be carriers until in the late 1980s.

The duties of a paperboy varied, but usually included counting and separating papers, rolling papers and inserting them in bags during inclement weather, and collecting payments from customers weekly. It was a local neighborhood job that could be done before or after school.

Lawrence Daily Eagle delivery truck ACHC Collection #1997.528.33

Each day, in early morning or mid afternoon for the evening papers, a delivery truck would drop the bundle of newspapers at a specific street corner in the neighborhood. The paperboy would have to go there to collect the papers. He then loaded up his cloth bag, or his bike baskets and start the delivery route.

If you didn’t have a paper route when you were growing up, chances are that your brother or sister did, or your good friend or classmate or neighbor’s child did.

My younger brother had a paper route in our neighborhood of roughly 300 homes, when he was in middle school. As the older sister, I sometimes assisted him. Once during a raging blizzard, we stacked his papers on a sled and trudged for what seemed like hours, to get those newspapers delivered before dark.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, as recently as 1994, 57 percent of paper carriers, were under 18, often neighborhood kids.

Many newspapers rewarded their young carriers for their dedication to the chore.

Watch distributed by the Lawrence Eagle Tribune (North Andover, MA) to its paper carriers in the late 1990’s as a thank you for service ACHC Collection # 2014.006.1a-c Donated by Robert Marcus

The donor remembered that:

“The Rogers family and the Eagle Tribune were well known in the area for their kindness towards the ‘paper-boy tradition’. Bundles of daily Tribunes would be dropped off curbside all around Andover by mid-afternoon, about the time that kids were leaving school.”

“The boys and girls who had ‘contracted’ to deliver the papers would load them into their Eagle Tribune paper bags and mostly get them onto their bikes to run their routes of homes. In bad weather, parents frequently drove the kids on the routes. Most of the papers went into street-side mail-type boxes or were tossed towards the front door. Some folks had the news delivered directly to or inside their door. Collection days [when paper carriers collected the weekly subscription payments and when they might get tips] were Saturdays and the kids were especially interested in making timely collections at Christmas. As each delivery boy grew older, he would “sell” his route to another interested kid. Negotiations regarding the price were serious and deepened a bit on how close to Christmas.”

“As I remember my son’s experience, the distribution manager would give each kid a turkey at Thanksgiving, something at Christmas, and a ham for Easter, courtesy of the Tribune. And I believe there was a college scholarship fund too. From one parent’s point of view, the experience was an excellent relationship and introduction to the working world.”

Irving E. Rogers and Irving E. Rogers Jr. Former owners and publishers of the Lawrence Eagle Tribune ACHC Collection #1995.071.3

Gradually an end came to underage paper carriers. Many states and unions differed as to whether paper carriers were independent contractors or employees of the newspaper companies and therefore subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. Safety for young carriers became an issue. Plus, many newspapers discontinued evening editions, thus eliminating the popular after-school option.

According to an article posted by NBC news in 2006:

“Today’s papers usually arrive by anonymous drive-and-toss. For reasons including the demise of afternoon papers, a shift to centralized distribution and earlier delivery deadlines, adults in cars now make up 81 percent of the country’s newspaper carriers.”

“As the job moved into the hands of grown-up independent contractors, who don’t come to the door for payment anymore, many bemoan the lost sense of community in which the paperboy played a unique role. Also lost is an opportunity that gave children as young as 10 business skills.”

Paperboy statue Arisugawa-no-miya Japan Memorial Park photo courtesy of WikimediaCommons- Public domain

Paperboys were popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Japan, as well. National Newspaper Carrier Day on September 4th and International Newspaper Carrier Day celebrated during the first full week in October, highlights the contributions that newspapers, their staff, and carriers make to deliver the news to their communities.

In addition, the Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame, was begun in 1960 by the International Circulation Managers Association to recognize former newspaper carriers who have achieved national prominence. You can find the list of recognized carriers below.

Thanks for reading!

Did you have a paper route or did your sibling or friend or child? Please share your stories. I’d love to hear them.

Marilyn

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Resources

Andover Center for History and Culture Collections

Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame

From Street Urchins to Little Merchants: The Juridical Transvaluation of Child Newspaper Carriers by Marc Linder, Temple Law Review, Vol 63, pp.829-864 1990

Julia Malakie (April 26, 2006). "While you were sleeping, the paperboy grew up". msnbc.com. AP

Some States Do Not Recognize Newspaper Carriers as Independent Contractors June 14, 2012

NY Times article: Men and Women replacing the paperboy tradition.