THE NEWSPAPER FIRES CARRIERS

  Just as they promised, the newspaper DID NOT arrive today in our box. 

We fastened a plastic box to the post beside our USPS box. We live on a rural cul-de-sac, and for years “The Greenville News” (“TGN” of Greenville, SC) has been delivered to that box. 

Weeks ago, TGN sent a notice saying the paper would not be delivered, as of October 10, 2023, by “regular carriers” but delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). We would receive the paper when the postal carrier delivered it with our mail. Of course, I can read TGN on the internet. That privilege is paid for with my subscription to the newspaper. 

I took letters to our mailbox this morning, looked in TGN box, and sure enough, the paper wasn’t there. I felt nostalgic.

Months ago, TGN stopped Saturday delivery. I had to go online on Saturdays and print the crossword puzzle I clip for my wife. She likes to work that crossword right after breakfast. Early in the morning, I take letters to the mailbox and fetch the paper out of the newspaper box. Sort of like — “Go, fetch the paper, Fido!”

Now, I’ll need to go online everyday because “Honey” won’t want to wait on her crossword puzzle. If she does not get to fill in blanks on her crossword right after breakfast, there may be some cross words exchanged across the breakfast table. Who needs that?

I suspect TGN is trying to force its subscribers to go online. I wonder if they want to stop printing a paper edition? What about the poor folks who don’t have computers? “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” comes to mind. Maybe this is part of the push for a paperless society. Perhaps this is “pulp friction” in the making. 

Oh, well, I’ll adjust. But what about the folk who delivered TGN — the “carriers,” as we call them. 

Weeks before the “shutdown,” as I call it, I received a letter from my carrier; it was attached to my newspaper:

“Newspaper Subscriber,

“As y’all may have already heard, your ‘Greenville Newspaper’ is going to the Post Office as of Oct. 10th. So Monday, Oct. 9th is our last day of delivering your papers. So like usual at Christmas, we give y’all a Christmas card. Well this year y’all won’t be getting one. 

“We are so sorry for this. We don’t like it no better than y’all do …

“Because of the paper going to USPS, we are losing our job. We so appreciate your business so much. We all did the best to do a good job. So if y’all would like to send or give us a last tip, it would be appreciated so much. I have been with Gannett for 18 years.

“Sincerely.”  

He signed his name and gave his address. 

(Gannett Company owns over 100 daily newspapers, and nearly 1,000 weekly newspapers, sources say.)

I sent the guy a check, feeling as though my gift was a drop in the bucket for the poor fellow. Christmas is coming, and it’s sad to think of my ex-paper carrier looking for a job. Times are a-changing, and technology is causing changes — and heartache. 

The paper should arrive after lunchtime in the regular mail. I better make a note to warm up my computer early tomorrow and have that crossword puzzle printed out before Honey finishes her coffee.