[Misc] Paper rounds

[Herr Tubthumper]

A comment @portlock seagull made in another post had me reminiscing about the paper rounds I had as a kid.

Who else delivered newpapers? Do these rounds still exist?

I started off with an evening round delivering the Argus, then moved onto a morning round which I found much more enjoyable. A significant chunk was inside an old people’s home which made my round easier and I used to sit and read the press for a while in the warm.

I had a Sunday round which paid a little bit more but the bigger papers and supplements were really heavy.

I remember covering for a friend who had a round directly with the Argus, mine was via a Newhaven newsagent. This paid a lot more but meant I had to use my bike as it was all over the town.

 

[Rookie]

6 days a week rain or shine, with the occasional Sunday covering someone else.
Loved it
The bigger the house the less the Christmas tip though.

 

[Carlos BC]

Had a Friday evening one delivering the free local kind of shit paper. And then also an early morning one Monday to Sunday. I was friends with one of the blokes that marked up the morning ones and he would sometimes slip a thieved porno mag in one of the papers that we would have a look through later in the day.

 

[Sorrel]

I did a morning round six days a week in the early/mid 80s, not Sunday. Part of it was in a set of flats, so I was terrible for sitting on the stairs reading the papers rather than delivering them. The older residents of the flats used to say "Here's two shillings as a tip" and hand me 10p at Christmas. I disliked the rain and the cold and people who only bought papers on Saturday, when they were heavier.

Also did free "advertising" paper delivery one afternoon a week. That was much more annoying as it involved going to every house. I used to buy sweets to eat on the way round which eventually taught me a valuable lesson in economics (don't spend your wages while doing the work).

Doubt they exist in the same way now.

 

[trueblue]

Brighton & Hove Leader for me. Not a ‘proper’ paper round. Paid a pittance for each copy delivered. It became a lot easier when I found out the old people’s home had an insatiable appetite for the Leader’s dual purpose of being mildly diverting for a few minutes and effective at mopping up piss. Could dump about 100 in one go with a clear conscience.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

6 days a week rain or shine, with the occasional Sunday covering someone else.
Loved it
The bigger the house the less the Christmas tip though.

Good point about Xmas tips. I always did quite well out of this.

I loved it as well. I’ve always been a “morning” person and my paper round probably played a part in this.

 

[Chicken Run]

I did a 7 day a week morning paper round in the days when the News of the World was a broadsheet paper, I did and Evening Argus round after school and for a time ran a Advertiser/ Leader Thursday round which I sub contracted out to a mate I remember when the Sunday bags started to get heavy with the addition of the supplements appearing!

 

[Garyoldfan]

I loved my morning paper round. Used to read all the papers on the way round. My son gets £35 for 7 days for his round. Hardly any papers these days and we help at weekends which can be a pain.

 

[Rambo]

I had a morning paper round delivering 7 days a week. I also used to deliver the Argus in the afternoon as well as free papers Worthing Guardian and Advertiser once a week.

I also used to cover the rounds of people who phoned in sick.

Fair to say I used to make a few quid and didn’t mind the hard work.

Not sure much of this goes on these days.

 

[The Grockle]

I did 7 days of paper rounds from the age of 11 and prepared the rounds from age 13 at 5am.

In a way I feel like we were taken advantage of but I remember being paid £14 from my Sunday rounds from 5am till around 10am that felt like a huge amount of money as a 13 year old, considering a pack of fags were around £2.

My full week of morning rounds, two evening free paper rounds and a mammoth Sunday round paid me around £40 for around 20 hours per week, my friends at the time were lucky to get £5 in pocket money

 

[Hamilton]

I had a connected job.

I worked for The Leader in Robert Street. My job was to divide the leaflets for all the rounds in Brighton and Hove. We’d get thousands of boxes of leaflets and I’d have to divide them up ie 100 for this round, 150 for that round, 63 for that round. It was all done by hand and I’d do it alone.

It’s how I got into TMS as a teenager. After a while Radio 1 would do your head in, so I started listening to Radio 4 and then Test Match Special.

Of course, half the time was wasted as I knew you little twats were all trying to dump the leaflets in bins. We had teams of watchers out checking bins for leaflets. Found loads.

I think our verified distribution was up to 350,000 so I’d be sorting something like 1.5million leaflets each week. Actually, about half that as some other poor bugger also did a day of it.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I was not only a paper boy, I was Kent Newspaper Boy Of The Year 1974. Picture made the front page of the Kent Evening Post and everything. The competition was sponsored by The Sun. Me and my fellow regional finalists got entered into the national final in that there London, where we were grilled by an expert panel of judges including Peter Walker MP, Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters and Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart. Never won, but did get put up for two nights in a nice hotel, a tour of The Sun printing works and a slap-up gala dinner at the Savoy Hotel. Not too shabby

 

[Horses Arse]

A comment @portlock seagull made in another post had me reminiscing about the paper rounds I had as a kid.

Who else delivered newpapers? Do these rounds still exist?

I started off with an evening round delivering the Argus, then moved onto a morning round which I found much more enjoyable. A significant chunk was inside an old people’s home which made my round easier and I used to sit and read the press for a while in the warm.

I had a Sunday round which paid a little bit more but the bigger papers and supplements were really heavy.

I remember covering for a friend who had a round directly with the Argus, mine was via a Newhaven newsagent. This paid a lot more but meant I had to use my bike as it was all over the town.

The Sunday supplements. Wow, those bags were heavy!

I vividly remember some grumpy old twat moaning at me for delivering the paper late to him: "go pick it up yourself then, you only live round the corner" was apparently not the way to talk to customers.

 

[shingle]

Very fond memories, I had an evening round throughout the year, but in the summer holidays did the evening round plus two morning rounds. But as Rookie says the bigger the house the less tip you got at Christmas

 

[tstanbur]

Used to deliver the Argus on and get paid £7 a week at the end of it. An hour later that had usually been pumped in the fruit machines down West Street. Idiot!

At Christmas I used to “accidently” put two copies in the same letterbox so I had to ring their bell and explain. Usually resulted in a Christmas tip.

Except when they weren’t in and left me a paper short for someone else. Idiot!

 

[KZNSeagull]

I had a morning round from WH Smiths at Haywards Heath station from 1979 to about 1982. £2.20 a week, 6 days a week. Also had an Argus round in the evenings which paid a bit more and got me free tickets to see the Jam at the Brighton Centre in 1980! Sadly, I can still remember which houses I delivered to on my morning round. Wednesdays and Fridays were worst - Radio Times on Wednesday, Mid Sussex Times on Friday which doubled the size and weight of the bag. The Christmas box was worth a fortune - £5 minimum from just about every house.
My son had a paper round here for a few years which paid about £20 a week. The main issue with it was that on many mornings the papers did not turn up on time and the kids had to go school before they could do their rounds! That never happened in my day!

 

[Chicken Run]

I was not only a paper boy, I was Kent Newspaper Boy Of The Year 1974. Picture made the front page of the Kent Evening Post and everything. The competition was sponsored by The Sun. Me and my fellow regional finalists got entered into the national final in that there London, where we were grilled by an expert panel of judges including Peter Walker MP, Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters and Ed 'Stewpot' Stewart. Never won, but did get put up for two nights in a nice hotel, a tour of The Sun printing works and a slap-up gala dinner at the Savoy Hotel. Not too shabby

Love this Btw I didn’t realise you have lived South of the Border for so long, you’re basically NSC’s very own Rod Stewart

 

[Mr Bridger]

Love this Btw I didn’t realise you have lived South of the Border for so long, you’re basically NSC’s very own Rod Stewart

 

[Hamilton]

I had a morning paper round delivering 7 days a week. I also used to deliver the Argus in the afternoon as well as free papers Worthing Guardian and Advertiser once a week.

I also used to cover the rounds of people who phoned in sick.

Fair to say I used to make a few quid and didn’t mind the hard work.

Not sure much of this goes on these days.

It goes on.

Bloody lad walks past my window every morning each Sunday in Hurst. Makes a right racket!

If it’s you, fixed that bloody squeaky wheel!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

In the end, my burgeoning career as a paperboy led to promotion to the coveted role of 'marker'. You had the shop's big book of customers, and you had to make up the bag for the paperboys, write the address at the top right hand corner of the papers, insert the supplements etc. On the plus side, you got to stay in the shop and swerve the shit weather. On the down side, you had to get to the shop earlier than the paperboys, and you never got tips at xmas