# When did newsboys disappear? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 1, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441 "2016-08-01T04:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/21 "2016-08-01T16:52:43Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > The newsboy, who would be available on a corner or walking around barking “…read all about it!” vanished along with afternoon daily papers. Papers are morning editions now. In Chicago, the Tribune did an evening edition of the paper, at least through the 1990s. However, that evening edition was mostly a wrap of a few additional pages, placed around a copy of that morning’s edition. The extra evening pages consisted largely of the close-of-trading stock market numbers, plus a page or two of new / updated news stories. They had “newsboys” (who were, in fact, adults) selling that edition outside of the downtown train stations during the evening rush hour. I imagine that easy availability of the market numbers online is what killed demand for that edition. ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/22 "2016-08-01T17:06:28Z")
When I was in college in Chicago in the early 80s, there were people selling newspapers to the cars in traffic during morning rush. A lot of them were young guys, 12 to 15 or so. The cars would be stopped at a stoplight trying to get on to Lake Shore Drive. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/23 "2016-08-01T17:21:39Z")
When I lived in Tucson in the late 90s, there were a number of intersections where you could pick up a paper from a vendor in the median. Last time I was in Tucson (2013) you could still buy papers that way (especially on Sundays), although in fewer places. If I recall correctly, these vendors were in some ways official since they wore reflective vests with the paper’s name on them. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/24 "2016-08-01T17:26:31Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Locally ‘paper boys’ delivering to your doorstep and collecting monthly subscription charges in our Midwestern suburb stopped sometime in the mid-late 1980’s. Replaced by adults delivering in vehicles and mailed billings. I had a paper route in the (US) 1970s. Kids continued to deliver that paper until it became a morning paper sometimes around 1992. Then, the powers that be at the paper though it wouldn’t be safe for kids to be delivering papers at 5 or 6 in the morning. Never mind that I got up then for two years to deliver the Sunday edition. But I guess there isn’t a lot of traffic on Sundays. Adults in cars can supposedly deliver about five times as many papers as a kid on a bike or one foot, so it’s a good supplement to someone on social security or who does seasonal work, or something. I made about $70/month delivering my papers in 1979. That’s about $250 now. Some five routes would pay about $1000/month. I’ll bet a lot fewer people take a paper now, though. On my route, nearly every house took a paper. There were maybe three houses out of about 60 that didn’t, plus one that took only Sunday. I’ll bet carriers are lucky if 2 out of five people take a daily paper, although maybe more take Sunday for coupons. I took a paper at the first apartment I lived in, when I was 20, and always thereafter, until about the late 90s. I had a terrible carrier, and I could usually snag a used paper at work. By the time I had another job, I had the internet and a 24 hour news channel, and I didn’t really need a paper. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/25 "2016-08-01T18:23:12Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There were still a few in the 1940s, but by the 50’s, it would have been pretty rare. Most of the ones I heard about in the 50s were old-timers, who had never done anything else, and still stuck their old street corner. > > In high school in the early 50s, ,I worked behind the counter in the only shop in town that sold newspapers, and I probably sold about 100 a day. Maybe half of them to regular customers who came in every day to get their paper. There were three locally distributed papers for which boys had home delivery routes, and there were about 25 boys who had a route of 40-50 customers each, so there may have been over a thousand papers door to door, and a hundred more sold direct in a shop. Distribution might have been different in bigger cities, I can’t speak to that. Thanks. And yes, I’m talking about the “extra extra read all about it” kids. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/26 "2016-08-01T19:16:25Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Thanks. > > And yes, I’m talking about the “extra extra read all about it” kids. In 1981, Reagan was shot. I just started as a Circulation manager for the LA Herald Examiner, and yes, we put out a Extra! and yes, all the junior Circ staff and some kids were rounded up to hit Downtown LA and shout"Extree, extree, read all about!!". I was told that was the last time in California. I wore one of those front and back bags and shouted that shout. Made quite a bit of pelf, too, including one guy came over with tears in his eyes and gave my $5 as he had missed hearing that so much… Not impossible it occurred until fairly recently on special occasions in NYC, tho. ---
**Author:** ![Collect47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Collect47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Collect47)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/27 "2016-08-01T20:58:42Z")
Newsboys delivering papers basically ended place by place as the afternoon dailies died off. With morning papers generally having delivery times of 6 a.m. or earlier, it is impractical (and unsafe) to get the 12 year olds out in the dark delivering papers. The last “Extra!” edition I recall was for the JFK assassination - most afternoon papers (East Coast US) had stopped their press run when the event occurred. And most of the special edition was kept by people sure that the edition would be valuable (they aren’t) The last hawker for an “Extra!” I recall was in Rhode Island in the late 50s - my parents were driving through were going through town and a newsboy was selling papers at a traffic light. (For those on the West Coast - Rhode Island is dominated by one newspaper) Realistically, newspapers find adults with cars to be more reliable, and, as they often distribute several other items on the same route including weekly throwaways, cost effective. [http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/02/rip-pm-newspapers.html](http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2008/02/rip-pm-newspapers.html) About 1,500 afternoon newspapers - down to zero. More or less. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/28 "2016-08-01T22:32:59Z")
In the late 1960’s I went to high school with kids who earned extra money by selling the Sunday newspapers to people going to and from church. [The St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an Extra](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/columns/editors-desk/reserve-a-copy-of-post-dispatch-extra-editions/article_a8c5c1a8-01ac-11e1-8721-001a4bcf6878.html) when the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series. It was literally being sold on the streets downtown while the crowd was still celebrating. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/29 "2016-08-01T23:07:46Z")
Around the same time as I saw that panel van idling down the street. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ispolkom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47774/32.png) [@Ispolkom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ispolkom)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/30 "2016-08-02T02:00:46Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In 1981, Reagan was shot. I just started as a Circulation manager for the LA Herald Examiner, and yes, we put out a Extra! and yes, all the junior Circ staff and some kids were rounded up to hit Downtown LA and shout"Extree, extree, read all about!!". I was told that was the last time in California. I wore one of those front and back bags and shouted that shout. Made quite a bit of pelf, too, including one guy came over with tears in his eyes and gave my $5 as he had missed hearing that so much… > > Not impossible it occurred until fairly recently on special occasions in NYC, tho. On September 11, 2001 both the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had afternoon extras, and I bought both at a bus stop in front of the Pioneer Press building. I thought it a bit cheeky to have the Minneapolis paper send a vendor there. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/31 "2016-08-02T02:16:12Z")
When did newsboys disappear? Right around puberty. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/32 "2016-08-02T02:41:04Z")
Most metropolitan morning papers would publish several editions every night. An early edition would be in the trucks early enough to reach the smaller towns a hundred miles away, for the paper boys to deliver to doors. But in the city, another edition would be prepared several hours later, as the distribution terminals were much closer at hand… In the town I lived in, the morning paper would not have the final scores of ball games that ended after about ten pm, but people in the city would get a paper that had the scores of late games. Other stories could also be added or edited, as the editorial staff would be on duty in the middle of the night updating later editions. Like if the governor commutes a death sentence at 11:59. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/33 "2016-08-02T03:04:24Z")
In San Diego they still have people selling the Sunday edition of the paper at major intersections. I don’t recall every seeing anyone within about 15 years of being called a boy. PatrickLondon when I was a substitute paper boy in the seventies in the US we were expected to get the paper on the front porch in front of the door not chucked vaguely in the area of the house as we road by. I stopped getting the paper about 5 years ago. Then the paper was delivered by somebody in a car that threw it on the driveway as they drove by. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/34 "2016-08-02T03:13:22Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > They were cloned by the Cadmus Project in the 1970s (although I think that all turned out to be traceable back to Darkseid somehow). Very good. Definite golf clap. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/35 "2016-08-02T03:40:37Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > (Plastic newspaper tubes displaying the name of the paper and mounted next to rural mailboxes seems to be a peculiarly American thing. The USPS won’t let anything but actual mail be put in mailboxes, as has been kicked around in this forum before.) We have newspaper tubes - ordinary, not displaying the name of the paper. Used for free real-estate-funded local papers. We don’t have mail rules like that, so it’s just because the paper won’t fit in the mail slot. Street-corner paper boys here disappeared with the afternoon papers, and the employment restrictions, in the 80’s, but when we had them, we also had a few morning paper boys selling the morning paper to commuters. The morning boys would work some of the big traffic lights and rail crossings, where the cars would stop long enough. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/36 "2016-08-03T00:59:48Z")
> [@Ispolkom](#): > > On September 11, 2001 both the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune had afternoon extras, and I bought both at a bus stop in front of the Pioneer Press building. I thought it a bit cheeky to have the Minneapolis paper send a vendor there. My paper also put out an extra on Sept. 11, the first extra we’d done in the 20 years I’d been working there. It was on the streets by lunchtime and senior managers and editors were hawking it on the streets all over downtown. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/37 "2016-08-03T01:18:52Z")
> [@Philster](#): > > The newsboy, who would be available on a corner or walking around barking “…read all about it!” vanished along with afternoon daily papers. Papers are morning editions now. […] > > The newsboy, selling papers on city corners, made sense in the afternoon. Papers are early morning editions now, and while some areas still benefit from door-to-door delivery, the corner newsboy would have nothing to sell. 😕 😕 There were always early editions of newspapers as well as afternoon and sometimes evening ones. Urban newsboys sold morning editions of papers too. AFAICT, it was child labor laws that killed the newsboy, not so much the printing schedules. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/38 "2016-08-03T01:38:40Z")
the last place I lived that had 2 a day papers was Indiana and that was the indy star the morning papers had all the “hard” news and the evening edition was all the features columnist ect with follow up but where I live now it took them 70 years to make the paper viable to go all week … mostly the paper here is sold through machines and mini marts and delivery …last non car paper seller was a blind/disabled kid who used roller-skates who’d done it for 30 years til he passed on ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/39 "2016-08-03T02:55:41Z")
I thought this was going to be about bicycles. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441/40 "2016-08-03T22:11:40Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > 😕 😕 There were always early editions of newspapers as well as afternoon and sometimes evening ones. Urban newsboys sold morning editions of papers too. > . Although that’s true, as I noted above, you mostly got your morning newspaper home delivered, or bought it at the train station, to read at breakfast or on your morning commute. Then in the evening you bought your evening paper from the boy on the city corner yelling “Herrrrrr–ald”, which you read on the evening commute and at dinner. In my city, in the 70’s, there were only a few places where the density of morning commuters with no paper made it attractive to morning newsboys. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-newsboys-disappear/761441.md?page=1)