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Publisher explains home delivery's demise

Array

Friday, June 29 was the last day the Yukon News offered home delivery. I am writing to explain that decision.

The number of people, young people in particular, willing to deliver the Yukon News has been dropping steadily for years. Finally, when it came to the point where we could only deliver fewer than 300 copies, we decided to give up. From now on, you will need to pick up your copy at one of the fine Whitehorse establishments that sell the News.

Yukon News carriers were expected to deliver their papers by 6 p.m., twice a week, in rain, snow or frigid temperatures. In return, they kept 25 cents per copy delivered, and their tips. The carriers were supervised by two amazing women, Kathy O’Donovan and Lori Henderson. To them we owe huge thanks for their years of receiving phone calls around the clock, fielding complaints and helping the young carriers develop skills that will, we hope, help them throughout their lives.

We tried and tried to attract school-age children-you may have noticed the many ads we placed soliciting carriers for the various Whitehorse neighbourhoods. Over the years, we also tried attracting seniors, stay-at-home parents and college students. All to no avail.

From a business perspective I know this is the right decision. We tried everything we could think of to provide home delivery and we will more than make up the circulation through our newsstand sales so the value our advertisers receive will not be diminished. From a personal perspective, though, it was not so easy. The paper route I had when I was young taught me a number of valuable lessons, both positive and negative: work comes before play, customer service is vitally important, not everyone is honest.

In closing, I would like to thank all our carriers, past and present, and their parents who supported them.

Stephen Robertson

Publisher, Yukon News