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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
