The Press

The Newsagent's Lot

By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL During previous articles discuSsing the prob- lems of the colour supplement battle our commentator on the press undertook to present the newsagent's point of view. Here is his report on the workifigs of one representative newsagent at Colchester, Essex.

Friday, August 28

4.30 a.m.: Shop opens up. (5.30 a.m. on week- days other than Friday and on Sunday at 6.30 a.m.) Takes in some 700 Essex County Standards (circulation 60,000) off doorstep. Assistant starts sorting them.

5.15 a.m.: National daily newspapers arrive. Newsagent and assistant sort them into thir- teen bundles (thirteen rounds) with correct number of each newspaper.

7.00 a.m.: Twenty-six customers called—£2 15s. in till. Delivery boys arrive and take bundles downstairs to sort into house and street num- bers. Each boy's round is numbered and there are thirteen of them, plus one reserve. Assistant (girl)—sixteen-year-old and earn- ing approximately £4 per week—takes over. Works until 4.30 p.m.

8.30 a.m.: Second assistant (girl) starts. Works until 5.30 p.m.

9.30 a.m.: Third assistant (girl) arrives. Works until 6.30 p.m., when the shop shuts.

Newspaper Round Approximately one-mile radius : farthest point, two miles from shoji Eight hundred houses. Boys earn lOs to 12s. 6d. per week. The different boys who work on Sundays earn 5s.

Newspaper Sales

Sunday : Sunday Express 292: Sunday Mirror 143; Sunday Times 130; News of the World 117; People 98; Sunday Telegraph 78; Observer 74; Sunday Citizen 6. Total, 938.

Daily: Daily Telegraph 251; Daily Express 208; Daily Mirror 200; Daily Mail 196; Daily Sketch 52; East Anglian Times 50; The Times 28; Daily Herald 22; Guardian 17; Financial Times 15; Sporting Life 3; Morning Advertiser 2; New Daily 2; Daily Worker. 1. Total, 1,047.

Morning paper 'over the counter' sales 160, bringing the total to 1,207.

Evening: Evening News 26; Evening Standard 13; Ipswich Evening Star 6. Total, 1,252.

Some periodicals and weeklies: Spectator 4; New Statesman 7; Church Times 7; World's Press News 1 (all on Friday); The Queen 2 (fort- nightly on Wednesday); Woman's Own 100; Woman 150 (both on Wednesday); Woman's Mirror 52 (Monday); Amateur Gardening 16 (Saturday); Radio Times 312 and TV Times 180 (both on Thursday).

This shop sells newspapers, cigarettes, tobacco, toys, stationery, sweets, knitting wools and greet- ings cards. Rent of shop premises: £500 p.a. Turnover: weekly £500, daily £50-£100 (includes £10 a day on knitting wool and £20 on cigarettes and tobacco). Profit: on newspapers' id., on cigarettes 10 per cent, on knitting wool 33j per cent. Delivery charges : 4d. per week (per cus- tomer), Id. on Sundays (per customer). Cigarettes : approximately 600 per day. Ac- counts : paid monthly or weekly (boys cannot take cash).

The newsagent I visited was Mr. D. Johnson, 75 Crouch Street, Colchester. I had been told that his was a very fair example of a medium- sized newsagent's shop. I chose to go on a Friday as this is the newsagents' heavy' day. It is obvious that if the Daily Telegraph persist in sending out their Weekend Telegraph on Fridays a considerable extra burden will fall on the news- agents and their boys. As it was, some of the boys, plus one girl, left the shop with their canvas bags bulging. It was quite a business for some of them to get the bags on to their bicycles. Mr. Johnson would have to take on two or three extra boys and rearrange their rounds. This is not very difficult during the school holidays, but during term time the boys are only allowed to work one hour a day, so' this severely restricts the size of their rounds.

A newsagent's life is a hard one. It is no job for a lazy man or a fool. Competition is keen (there arc two other newsagents in the same street). Sunday is free after nine a.m., but there are only three full holidays in the year - Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Good Friday. The newsagent can't ever afford to be ill. Of course, he makes a good living: he has little time to spend money on pleasures and probably manages to save a good deal of his money. It is estimated that there are some 40,000 newsagents', large and small, in the kingdom. Of these, 32,000 belong to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents. It is no great hardship getting up at four in the morning in the summer, once one has got into the routine of it, but it can't be much fun in winter.