Getting the paper to your front door just got a little harder

Tesha M. Christensen

PICK UP A COPY

If you’re anything like me, you love a good local read. Check out these newspapers that still print physical copies (and also have e-editions online). We’re collaborating with them with on delivery:

1) Northeaster, 31,700 copies, every other week, Northeast Minneapolis

2) St. Paul Publishing: St. Paul Voice, Downtown St. Paul Voice, South St. Paul Voice, La Latina Voz, 37,500 copies, once a month

3) Community Reporter - nonprofit, 13,000 copies, monthly, West 7th Street area in St. Paul

4) TMC Publications: Longfellow Nokomis Messenger (22,000 copies) in Minnneapolis and Midway Como Frogtown Monitor (23,500 copies) in St. Paul, monthly; Southwest Connector (25,000 copies), twice a month in Southwest Minneapolis

OTHER NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSPAPERS

• Alley, non-profit, once a month in Phillips neighborhood, Minneapolis; door-to-door delivery and stacks at local businesses

• Hill and Lake Press, non-profit, once a month in Kenwood, Lowry Hill, Cedar–Isles–Dean and East Isles in southwest Minneapolis; 9,000 copies delivered by mail

• North News, non-profit owned by Pillsbury United Communities, once a month to 14 neighborhoods of North Minneapolis via 400 public bulk drop sites and paid home subscriptions; runs year round internship program for area high school students

• Park Bugle, non-profit, once a month in St. Anthony Park, Lauderdale, Falcon Heights and Como Park, St. Paul; delivered to subscribers by mail

• Southside Pride, once a month, 10,000 copies, stacks at south Minneapolis businesses

• Villager, every other week, based in Highland Park, St. Paul; delivered to subscribers by mail

PRINT NICHE PUBLICATION

• Access Press, non-profit, monthly, Minnesota’s Disability Community News source, delivered to subscribers by mail and at businesses throughout the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. (*Note: editor is Jane McClure of St. Paul, who also writes for the Monitor and Villager.)

We’re excited to announce...

that we’re switching to one paper a month for the Southwest Connector, matching it up with our two other publications, the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger and Midway Como Frogtown Monitor. This will enable us to have larger issues, while also cutting costs on delivery and printing. Like our readers and the businesses that advertise with us, we have been hit by inflation and rising costs. Paper plants have shut down although the demand is still there, and the number of printing presses in Minnesota has declined. We’re still feeling affects from COVID-19 on the print media industry as a whole, and we are pivoting in response to those larger market factors. We believe in the value of print, and want to make sure that we have a sustainable business model that fits this place and time.

BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR...

a new product, a business directory that we’re publishing in July in partnership with the Southwest Business Association. We’re also adding more PRINT + DIGITAL offerings, along with sponsored content options so that businesses and organizations can tell their own stories. Find our media kit online at TMCpub.com to learn more.

Being a small business owner has its good and bad days. In late December 2023, we got some tough news.
Independent Delivery Service (IDS), a staple in the Twin Cities for 50 years, was shutting down effective almost immediately.
Founded in October 1973 by Mike Depe, IDS offered an alternative delivery for third class mail and newspaper inserts. They moved to 440 W Minnehaha Ave. in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul in 1989, occupying a 18,000-square-foot building that provided garage space for 20 fleet vehicles, warehouse space for deliveries, and office space for sales and other staff. At one time, IDS was among the largest alternative distribution services operating in the country. They had more than 50 employees and subcontractors delivering over 50 million pieces per year. Account representatives Mike Tierney and Paul Overson worked at IDS for decades, as did operations manager Brian Amundsen.
Mike Depe died in October 2020 at age 71, and his daughters Bridget Teigland, Heather Favre, and Charlotte Snegosky took over the operation of IDS on top of their other responsibilities.
Last year, MyVillager newspaper in Highland Park decided to stop using IDS to deliver to front doors. They dropped down their print circulation and opted for paid subscribers who get the paper in the mail. Previously, they had been delivering 60,000 papers throughout St. Paul and nearby cities of Lilydale, Mendota and Mendota Heights, with a few thousand papers in the Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis. They shifted their focus to their website, as have other newspapers who are adapting to survive.
The MyVillager shift came on the heels of a string of local newspaper closures over the years that included North St. Paul-based Lillie Suburban Newspapers (folded September 2019) and the Southwest Journal (shuttered in December 2020). Forum Communications closed papers in Woodbury, Cottage Grove and Hastings, and those have been jump-started online.
There have been other delivery companies that have come and gone over the years, including Lloyd’s Delivery, which delivered for the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger and Midway Como Frogtown Monitor for years, and because of that we had hired IDS to deliver roughly half of the Messenger and Monitor newspapers for the last two years. (And they had delivered our newspapers at other times over the last few decades.)
In late fall, IDS learned that the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press were discontinuing their free weekend products, the small editions with lifestyle content, coupons and sale flyers. It was a decrease in about 100,000 weekly deliveries for IDS. The owners decided they couldn’t sustain such a decrease in business, and announced they were done as of Dec. 31.
That left four of us neighborhood newspaper in the lurch, those of us still getting newspapers to people’s front doors the old-fashioned way: a newspaper placed door-to-door by a carrier walking from house to house in all kinds of weather.
Why do we still want to deliver this way?
We do it because we want everyone to get a paper, to have the same information and news no matter whether you own or rent, have a big house or a small one, make a lot of money or just get by.
When you blanket a neighborhood like we do, the paper goes to all ages, all races, and all ethnic groups. There is no discrimination. We require no payment. Local businesses support the writers, printing, and delivery through ad sales.
And we do it because we believe it is vitally important.
Newspapers, as my children hear often, are fundamental to democracy, and neighborhood newspapers are a great equalizer. These small little papers are creating community with each issue that comes out.
You might say, they are community.
So, when the Northeaster, St. Paul Publishing, Community Voices and TMC Publications CO (my group of three newspapers that reach over 150,000 readers each month) heard that IDS was shutting down, we came together.
The Neighborhood and Community Press Association folded years ago as the once-strong group of about 40 papers dwindled. But we’re reviving a coalition.
We know we’re stronger together.
We’re working to keep on some of the carriers who used to deliver for IDS and have walked these city streets for years with a bag of papers slung over their shoulders. For some of them, this has been their main job. For other carriers, it is a side gig meant to add something extra to their household income. We have retired folks working as carriers. Parents and children learning the ins and outs of newspaper delivery. People appreciate the flexibility of the gig. They like the fresh air and appreciate a job that moves their body.
If you want to join our group of carriers, send a note to delivery@tmcpub.com.
As we work out the kinks of this new system, please be patient with us. Let us know if you got your paper – and if you didn’t. Thank your carrier.
Share your thoughts on the neighborhood and newspapers. Email tesha@tmcpub.com.