The route

The newspaper has gone through some changes recently and as a result of these changes I decided to make the "route" – the weekly delivery of the newspaper to the area post offices and vendor locations a part of my regular work routine.

People often seem surprised to see me out filling the racks and coin-operated newsstands with newspapers each Wednesday morning. I suppose there aren’t many editors or publishers that do this, but I think they probably should – at least every once in a while. I think they would find that it’s a really great opportunity to learn more about their community.

On many occasions, people have stopped me while I was out on the route to share information that led to better news coverage in the paper. Of course, sometimes people will share criticism – sometimes positive, sometimes negative – but it is important for us to hear both kinds.

It’s just good to drive around and see what’s happening all across Karnes County on a weekly basis – there is quite a bit happening out there these days and it is important for those of us in the newspaper business to be aware of what’s going on locally.

I’ve never been a big fan of physical exercise, but I can honestly say that the exercise that I get while out delivering papers Wednesday mornings is good for me. I feel better, I seem to have more energy and I don’t get sick as often as I used to. I used to have a circulation problem that would wake me up in the middle of the night – I’d find that my arm was "asleep" and it would terrify me – waking up without being able to feel anything in my arm or even move it. Since taking over the route, that problem has completely ceased.

I really enjoy getting away from the computer – even if it’s just for half a day each week.

In this modern version of my job, a vast amount of my time is spent in a dark office in front of computer screen. Don’t get me wrong – computers are great and powerful tools that allow us to do more with the newspaper than every before, but still, it’s really, really good to get out and breathe the fresh air, see the blue skies and feel the sun on my face.

Monitoring the sales of the papers at the vendor locations really keeps me acutely aware of what kinds of news items our readers are interested in. If we have a week where we sold out at many locations, then I know that we must have put something in that particular newspaper that our readers were very interested in. Conversely, if I’m bringing back lots of unsold newspapers, then I know that we should have worked harder to put more interesting news in the paper for that week.

It all starts Tuesday evening when I drive to Beeville where the newspapers are printed. I load the 3,500 printed newspapers into the company van – total weight: about 1,000 lb. After bringing them to our office in Karnes City, me and another staff member spend a couple of hours putting advertising inserts into the papers. Once we are done, I’ll deliver the papers to Gillett on my way home. (So now you know, if you want to have the first paper, just drive to Gillett at midnight on Tuesday!)

On Wednesday mornings, I arrive here at the office at 4 a.m. to continue with assembling, sorting, counting, bundling, etc. of the newspapers as well as some other office tasks. Two other staff members arrive at 5 a.m. and the three of us work together getting the newspapers prepared for delivery.

At about 6 a.m., I deliver the papers to the Karnes City post office. All of our Karnes City subscriber papers as well as the out of town subscriber papers are dropped off before the post office opens. This early delivery ensures that local subscribers will get their papers in Wednesday’s mail. After this, I return to the office to continue counting, bundling and loading the papers into the van and one other vehicle for delivery to other locations across the county.

At about 6:45 a.m., I leave the office with a fully loaded van of newspapers for delivery to the Hobson post office, the Falls City post office and 26 different vendor locations, some of which are racks inside stores or restaurants, some are coin-operated newsstands. Another staff member leaves at the same time to take newspapers to the Kenedy post office, the Runge post office and two vendor locations in Runge.

There are a lot of little things that happen each week on the route that are interesting to watch. For example, just about every week when I pull up to Bordovsky’s, I know that I can look up and see a man jogging toward me. He jogs to the highway, turns around, and jogs back. It happens like clockwork, just about every Wednesday morning at about 7:10 a.m. I’m not sure why, but I just really like seeing that jogger each Wednesday. There are a lot of things like that that I see while out on the route – far too numerous to list.

If all goes well, I usually am able to return to the office about 9:30 a.m. and discard the "returns" (unsold newspapers) and record the sales and circulation for that week. This is the best part of the week. After a hyperactive Monday through Wednesday routine, I can sit back and relax a little bit. Sometimes it’s eerily quiet – I swear sometimes I can "sense" people out there reading the paper – it seems people like to read it just as quick as it comes out. With the Internet, I can now monitor the activity at the newspaper’s web site on Wednesday mornings and actually watch in real time how many people go to the web site and which stories they are clicking on. By far, the bulk of the traffic happens in the early morning hours each Wednesday. The volume of traffic is really amazing to watch.

So there you have it.

Everything you always wanted to know about the "route" and probably a whole lot more.

If you see me out there each Wednesday morning, don’t be afraid to wave or say "hello." I’m easy to spot – the tall guy in the black Countywide newspaper t-shirt who looks like he’s had way too much coffee!