Using Paper Boy for Your Marketing

[AAATreeLandscape]

Has anyone tried throwing the paperboy some extra $ to save on direct mail???

[hosejockey2002]

Sounds like a good idea, but you could possibly get the paperboy canned for stuffing flyers without authorization from the paper. If I am correct, papers charge for putting inserts in their papers.

[AAATreeLandscape]

I'm not saying they actually put my flyer in the paper just deliver it either to the door or hang it on the post when they are there dropping off the paper. That way there killing two birds w/ one stone and makin a little extra cash.

[bob]

The newspaper company would probably frown on this. They might even consider it stealing. It would be like asking your mailman to deliver them.

[1MajorTom]

Not sure how this would work out.
How many paperboys/girls would you be approaching to do this service for you?

My daughter delivers an afternoon newspaper daily, and she has around 70 customers. 70 people to target wouldn't really be worth it. So you would need to get a bunch of paperboys/girls to do this.
And as a parent, I would be kinda leery of someone approaching my daughter asking her to do this. And as I said, the routes around here are small, so you would have to be approaching a bunch of kids. If paper routes are the same in your area, it's probably not a good idea going up to kids cause I'm assuming you wouldn't actually know them, and then parents might not appreciate it.

And that's not to mention that when my daughter had to sign her contract (yes even a papergirl has to sign a contract), she had to agree not to deliver anything else with the newspaper, either stuffed in it or otherwise.

[Jon99]

Why not hunt down paper boys and ask them if they would like to make a few bucks by delivering your flyers to their customers AFTER they do their paper route, thus avoiding a conflict with their employer....

[Andrew S]

I think the idea is great to try!

If you ask . they can only say no

what have you got to lose

thanks

Andrew

[Barry D]

Sounds like a good idea. The paper boy rolls the paper and puts it into the plastic bag before starting his route. This will be a good time for him/her to insert your flyer. But, how much will you pay him? How many paper boys are in your area? They are taken a hugh chance that nothing will go wrong. He hopes that no one complains.
I will check with my local paper about paying to add my insert in the Sunday's paper. Most people read the Sunday's paper. This will go out to all that receive the paper instead of a certain area.

[Etlawn]

Sounds like a good idea in theory but how do you know if they are actually being delivered? Could be wasting money you dont need to spend....

[yardboyltd]

When I was a paperboy, I was considered a subcontractor with the publisher. This is how they can avoid child labor laws, taxes, etc... There was a specific clause about not putting inserts in the paper. Now I had about 65 customers on my route and made about $65 dollars a month. Thats $1 a customer a month. I delivered 6 days a week.. 4 weeks a month thats 24 days a month, lets say 25. Thats $0.04 a paper thrown. Also half my time was spent preparing the papers by rolling or sacking and banding them, so in actually it came to $0.02 a paper thrown and $0.02 a paper prepared... The paper boy isn't going ot have to prepare your flyers... So yea $0.02 a delivery is reallllllllllllllyyyyyyy cheap... 100 deliveries and thats only $2.00 based off my rate but i'd prolly pay him $5... $.05 seems like a good rate still compared to $.23 for postcard postage... just make it clear that these aren't to be included with the paper, but afterwards a "seperate mission". REMEBER, I was a subcontractor, that gives you more leeway in these type of things as long as you dont' violate the contract.

[Casey]

Around here the paper-person (we have more adults than kids doing this) can't add anything to the paper. In addition not everyone gets the paper, my neighbor delivers papers and says that less than half of the houses on his route take the paper. What we have done is hire a couple of college age people to door hang, we pick the neighborhoods that we want covered and they let us know when they want to do it, that way we can spot check. I pay 8 cents a piece, most of the time they can put out at least 100 per hour, that comes to 8$ per hour cash. We came up with the 8cents by asking what they wanted. We had planned on 12 to 15 cents each, figured my time was worth more than the $12 to $15 dollars per hour that we would have to pay at that rate. You might want to check with church groups or boy scout types of groups that are always looking to raise a few extra dollars.