At age 9 I had my first paper route and was introduced to the “news” business. News was printed on paper, once per day. Bundles of newspapers were dropped “hot off the press” at the local district manager’s house where a bunch of kids, their Schwinn Sting Rays, and canvas carrier bags gathered to fold, rubber band and pack.
Neighborhoods waited for us bicycling entrepreneurs to zoom in and toss with precision the world to their porch. I could hit a porch from 50 yards with an accuracy that John Elway may admire.
My route had about 75 homes, up and down hills, curves, houses large and small. The newspaper was the Riverside Press-Enterprise and was fairly hefty. The first Sunday morning I soon discovered that when, after having folded all the inserts and comics into the paper, that each weighed more than double the normal paper during the week.
Having put my carrier bag on the rack at the rear of the bike it immediately made my front wheel pop up off the ground — too much weight at the back, probably 60 pounds worth of newspapers. And Sunday was the only day I delivered in the morning, up before sunrise and pedaling around in the dark. How many kids would do that these days? Or parents would let them?
One of the highlights of delivering the Sunday paper was finishing the route and it still being early in the morning, about 7am. The reward was a ride over to the local Winchell’s donut shop where fresh baked donuts baked their sugary scent into the air. There’s nothing like the smell of fresh-baked donuts.
Recalling my intro to the news biz got me thinking about how news has and hasn’t changed. Here’s a quick comparison:
Old way: editors sit around a table with reporters and assign stories
New way: editors IM or text reporters and assign stories and may not even know them face to face at all
Old way: kids fold and deliver papers to homes via bicycle
new way: News is just delivered online.
Old way: tree pulp is mashed, bleached, pressed, dried, cut, delivered in 1-ton rolls to newspapers to load into their massive printing presses
New way: html
Old way: news was always a day old since by the time it was selected, assigned, written, edited, printed and delivered it just took time
New way: instant news as it happens play by play
Old way: place-based news: New York, Los Angeles, London, etc.
New way: global
Old way: one source per town
New way: the world is your town
Old way: all the news that fits
New way: no fitting required
One of the biggest things the old way gave kids like me was an entrepreneurial start. You had to go out, work, do, meet customers, collect payments. Do the math.
And for that I am forever thankful we had a world where I got a start as an entrepreneur at age 9.
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