I get a Sunday paper delivered and when you sign up they promise you a delivery by 8 am on a Sunday. There don't appear to be any quality standards for the newspaper itself, I guess it is hard to promise a customer that the paper will be a certain standard as how do you judge that? But delivery on time is a hard measure I can understand, it doesn't relate to the quality of the newspaper but it sure leaves an impression on this customer.
Now the target is missed more than it is hi, delivery this morning was around two and a half hours late, not exactly sure because you don't tend to go out looking every five minutes after is late. But still it finally got here, it has been reasonably common that it doesn't come at all. The convenience of getting the paper to your door is the reason for persisting with this arrangement, personally I don't read much of this paper anyway as I have already read most of the news online. Other family members still like the actually paper copy, but they get annoyed at the late delivery.
Fact is I could go to a nearby shop and get more timely service delivery,but I'd have to make an effort and probably no one here would bother after a few weeks. So there is an incentive for the Sunday-Times to deliver before eight o"clock as I'm sure many subscribers would not bother to go out and buy it. These customer might eventually realise that they can read almost all of it online for free, and that there are much better online newspaper than the Sunday Star-Times.
I accept the occasional disruption to the printing press or storms in the winter stopping delivery, but today it is a beautiful day and you have to wonder if the delivery guy sleeps in most weeks. Personally I'd have cancelled this non-service years ago but it does have one advantage that gives it the edge over the online versions. We use it to make paper sticks from to light the fire. I think the Sunday Star-Times needs to change its marketing approach to "you'll get it eventually and it is useful for starting fires". I guess they'll never do it though in case their pyromaniac readers take it as an invitation.
