WITH the days getting shorter, now is the perfect time to sign up to get your newspaper delivered to your door – and have your morning fix of news in time for that first cup of tea. October is National Home News Delivery Month (HND), a celebration of the valued tradition of having newspapers delivered straight to your door.
HND Month is an industry-wide shout-out for the doorstep service which customers rely on. Distributors, retailers and delivery drivers guarantee your favourite read, direct to your door, whatever the weather. During October our newspapers will feature promotions with great offers for customers to place their orders for our home delivery service. More than 1,000 retailers are joining the celebration so look out for posters and leaflets promoting what they can do for you.
One company which has been connecting news with breakfast tables for nearly a quarter of a century is Jackie’s News in Kent. Its dedicated band of 37 delivery people – average age 61 – clock on at 3.15am, some seven days a week, to get papers out across 84 towns and villages. It’s a rural patch, where the roads can be a challenge, adding to the convenience of having your paper come to you.
“It’s an ageing population,” said Guy Day, joint owner of Jackie’s South East HND Month dailies News. “Some people haven’t got an iPad and don’t use the internet. Some of our customers don’t have a mobile phone. A newspaper is a lifeline to the outside world. “You should see the emails that come in when we make it through with deliveries when it’s snowing. It was the same during the Covid lockdown. People are so grateful they are getting their papers.”
Guy is supporting this month’s celebration of home delivery. “We want to support the publishers,” he said. “They support us with ‘early titles’ and we want to support them. We need to work together on the overnight miracle, as they call it. “There is no doubt people want to know what’s going on in the world and in their local communities, and papers support that. “Everyone is doing their best to keep circulation up and support the industry.”
The company likes to do its bit for the community it serves, whether that’s sponsoring a village Christmas tree, or supporting a village show. “It might not be massive amounts, but we’re keen to help where we can,” said Guy. Also doing their bit are the paper men and women. Jackie’s News’ longest serving deliverer recently retired, aged 92. “Some get through their round quicker, others will stop and chat, they are very involved with their communities,” said Guy. “We don’t give them a time to complete their round by – as long as everyone is happy and no-one is complaining their paper isn’t arriving early enough, that’s fine. “It’s a great job for the older generation because, quite often, they are up early anyway, and they’ve still got lots of energy to give. It keeps them fit too, and they earn money and protect their pension.”
The average round is still finished by 7am in the week, 8am at weekends, so the men and women keeping this part of the South East in news can have their feet up reading their paper at a respectable hour, too.
