Newspaper Deliveries
Newspaper Deliveries
Newspaper deliveries
In the 1950s many householders would have had newspapers delivered daily. Before the television era radio and newspapers were the chief means by which people obtained news of the wider world.
Most newspapers at this time were of the large broadsheet format and were characterised by long vertical pages – similar to today’s Daily Telegraph. Papers were delivered by schoolboys early in the morning often before people left home for work. Each boy would have a ‘round’, that is, a regular list of addresses to which papers were delivered. The bag in which the papers were carried was slung over the shoulder, it being rather heavy to begin with but becoming lighter as the round progressed. On a rainy day the paperboy had to protect the papers from getting wet.
The newsagent in the village would be an even earlier riser as he had to sort out the papers for each round, this also necessitating writing the appropriate house number on each one.
Papers were also delivered in the evenings except on Sunday. There were two evening papers from which to choose: the Manchester Evening News and the Manchester Evening Chronicle. In addition, there was the Football Pink; this refers to a Saturday newspaper, historically published by the Manchester Evening News, known for its pink-tinted paper. It was a popular source for football results and match reports, particularly for Manchester City and Manchester United fans. The production process involved a dedicated team working to process, print, and distribute the paper within an hour of the final whistle on Saturday afternoon. Distribution sometimes involved a man walking along roads and on estates and shouting out the name of the paper and inviting the public to buy one on the spot. Locals could purchase a copy from a man selling them outside the Wellington pub in the village.