Digital news is changing the game, but the love affair with print endures

Every day for 150 years the Daily Dispatch has been distributed to thousands of readers.

For decades, trucks carrying the newspaper have travelled an estimated 7,000km a day — two million kilometres a year.

The printed newspaper remains the flagship for delivering the news, but digital news posted on Dispatch online platforms is starting to make a play for readership and is changing the nature of circulation, said editor Cheri-Ann James.

Her online editorial team provides her with the number of online readers and their choice of news and she shares this with circulation manager Riaan Odendaal.

James said: “Riaan then feeds us information about how certain stories drove newspaper sales on a particular day, and we now know how our readers find specific stories important in both print and online. Our readers tell us that these are strong local stories about crime, municipal politics and the environment.”

Odendaal said: “A strong front page story makes for good newspaper sales across the province. Our newspapers reach loyal readers in Bizana, Kokstad, Matatiele, Komani, Gqeberha and along the coast to Port St Johns. We are in most towns in that footprint.

“Everyday, rain or shine, we can face breakdowns, accidents, riots, and floods. We might have been late but we have never missed a day of delivering the Dispatch. Even during a huge flood we produced and delivered an A4 edition!”

“We start our run from the press in Gqeberha with two trucks which carry the Daily Dispatch to our distribution centre at our newspaper building in East London where some very hard work takes place. Papers in bundles of 100 are offloaded by hand and counted before the next vehicles are loaded.

"We load two or more vehicles at a time. First to be loaded are the country feeder vehicles and they head off to Mthatha and Komani, via Qonce, where they are reloaded onto smaller vehicles and distributed throughout the region.

"The next vehicles to be loaded at our newspaper house in Beacon Bay are for subscribers in the East London area and our retailers big and small  — from a spaza to a national retailer.

“We have around 20 contractors and drivers in cars, scooters and even runners on foot. The runners do home deliveries and work with a main supply vehicle where they are handed a bulk pack with a route list allowing accurate delivery to homes.

“Some subscribers want the runner to hit the front door when they throw the paper over the wall, others have specially designed chutes. One subscriber has a gutter pipe next to the post box and the paper slides down the pipe neatly into a bag — theft proof and water proof. People get very inventive!

“The newspaper has a shelf life. We have to get the paper onto the street for peak traffic from 6am to 9am. After that our 30 or more street sellers roam the business areas and sell it until midday.”

“We have some wonderful street sellers. One of our sellers in Batting Road sings and dances as she waves to the public.

“Managers are on duty 24/7 handling logistics and transport problems, customer queries and redeliveries. Our success for a great day is measured by reaching our desired service levels. Factors we are up against daily are anything from breakdowns at the printing plant, mechanical and accidents on route to East London, poor weather conditions and protests blocking roads for hours at times.

“The force behind our distribution success is the dedication and support of my distribution team, both the staff in the offices and our drivers out on the roads.”

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