Deliver Newspapers to Rural Areas and Make Money

By William Overton
Published on July 1, 1976
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PHOTO: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
If you don't mind getting up early, you can earn part time money delivering newspapers to rural customers.

Ever wonder who delivers the daily newspaper to the folks who live along the backroads? Well, at least in some cases, it’s a back-to-the-lander who works 21 hours a week . . . and earns $450 a month for doing the job!

A Do-it-Yourself Business that Works!

Three years ago Wanda (my wife) and I signed a contract for a motor route dealership with our local newspaper. As a result, we buy papers directly from the publisher and deliver them daily to about three hundred customers. We also drop a bundle of the newspapers at a rural store and seven more bundles along the way to “junior dealers” who, in turn, cover smaller routes. For our services (to both individual customers and the special drops), we collect enough each month to pay for our papers, cover all our operating expenses, and leave about $450 in “wages” for us. We’re not getting rich at that rate, but that’s not the idea. What we wanted was a business which would bring in enough money to cover the taxes and payments on our country place . . . yet leave us sufficient time to be people instead of machines. Our newspaper delivery service is exactly that business.

Make Money Delivering Newspapers

The easiest way to break into this little enterprise is by taking over an established route from a deliveryman who wants to retire or move on to something else. That’s how we began . . . when another dealer quit his daily deliveries and set up a “Sunday only” service to some towns back in the mountains. (Our predecessor now works just one day a week instead of seven, but still nets a respectable $160 a month for handling only the Sunday–which pays better than the dailies–edition.)

You can usually find out if any routes are open by asking one of the carriers for your local paper. Or, better yet, go directly to the newspaper’s circulation manager, let him know you’re interested, and–if there are no immediate openings–leave your name, address, and (if you have one) telephone number. Then drop back from time to time until you land the route you want.

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