National Newspaper Week 2020 - Making a newspaper from Newburgh News 10-5-1945

Circulation Department Sees That You Get Your Paper

Posted 10/8/20

All the effort which goes into the production of a daily newspaper would be in vain if the finished product did not get to its subscribers. That is the job of the Circulation Department, which must …

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National Newspaper Week 2020 - Making a newspaper from Newburgh News 10-5-1945

Circulation Department Sees That You Get Your Paper

Posted

All the effort which goes into the production of a daily newspaper would be in vain if the finished product did not get to its subscribers. That is the job of the Circulation Department, which must function with speed and efficiency so that each day's edition may be delivered promptly to more than 13,000 subscribers in Newburgh and surrounding communities.

There are three separate sections of The News' circulation department - which is the locale of the sixth day's stop on this make believe tour of the plant in observance of National Newspaper Week.

First of all, there is the office force which handles subscriptions, keeps records on deliveries to dealers and carrier boys, and keeps the mailing list up to date.

Another group operates in "the alley" where newspapers are received from the press, bundled, and sped on their way by means of The News trucks and public transportation systems.

The third group is the delivery system within the city and closer suburbs, using The News' own fleet of trucks.

Subscribers within the City of Newburgh receive their daily copies of the paper by means of 48 "Little Merchant" carrier boys who handle house-to-house deliveries, and 53 dealers who handle newsstand sales. These 101 agencies receive their bundles from News trucks which leave the plant as soon as their supplies of papers are received and bundled.

The distribution system in the suburbs is even more complex, embracing 41 carrier boys and 68 dealers. All bulk deliveries to these suburban carriers and dealers are made by bus and truck lines, mail trucks and other common carriers.

The daily newspaper deadline is governed almost entirely by the schedules on which these transportation systems operate. Since the first bus carrying copies of the paper leaves at 2 p. m., enough papers must be off the press and bundled by that time, or else many readers in the locoality served by that particular bus will miss their paper.

Mail subscriptions constitute another important part of the distribution system. This phase is highligihted by the large volume of newspapers going by mail to servicemen from Newburgh and vicinity who are stationed in every part of the world.

At the peak of America's war effort, before demobilization got underway, as many as 550 copies of The Newburgh News were mailed each day to soldiers, sailors and marines on Saipan, at Okinawa, Berlin, Rome, England and nearly everywhere else where American fighting men were stationed. Today copies of the paper are also going to Japan, last of the conquered Axis nations.