Portland Press Herald Distribution Woes
Delivery blip: Copies of the Portland Press Herald were unavailable in most of the state on Dec. 1 and 2. So far, there’s been no official explanation for the absence of the paper outside greater Portland. Calls to the Press Herald’s circulation department and to Hudson Rpm Distributors of Gorham, the company that handles statewide delivery for the paper, were not returned.
A source at the Press Herald with knowledge of the situation said MaineToday Media, the paper’s parent company, had fallen behind on payments to Hudson, causing the distributor to halt shipments for two days until MTM brought its account up to date.
If that information is correct, it’s the second time in recent weeks that MaineToday has been accused by a major vendor of failing to pay its bills. In November, the company was sued by McGrann Paper Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., for overdue payments for newsprint amounting to $124,000.
These indications of serious financial problems at MTM have fueled another kind of circulation, that of the rumor mill. Unsubstantiated reports that HM Capital Partners of Dallas, Texas, is seeking to sell its substantial share in MaineToday were fueled by the news that HM Capital has parted ways with Peter Brodsky, the partner in that company who had engineered the MTM deal. Shortly after the split, HM announced it would no longer be making investments in newspapers. Brodsky remains the chairman of MaineToday’s board of directors.
Now, how did they miss all that? On Dec. 4, the Maine Sunday Telegram ran a long piece by staff writer Susan Cover on the controversy surrounding MaineHousing executive director Dale McCormick. The package included a sidebar on McCormick’s background that was credited to Cover, but reads as if it had been written by McCormick’s public relations staff. No mention of her unsuccessful 1996 run for Congress. Nothing about the bare-knuckles political style she used to win the state treasurer’s position the following year. Not a word about expensive failures on her watch at the housing authority, such as a $1.1 million federal grant for alternative energy systems that didn’t work.
A little digging might have produced a lot more balance.
Freedom ain’t even close to free: Nice article by Mario Moretto in the Dec. 2 southern edition of the Forecaster on the illegal public-access policies of the Scarborough School Department. Scarborough already charges more than state law allows for copies of public documents – as much as $30 an hour – and was considering raising the fee even more – up to $50 per hour – until informed that Maine statutes limit the charge to a maximum of $10 per hour.
The board is now reassessing its plans and trying to figure out how to bring its policy in line with the law.
Al Diamon can be emailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
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I have a feeling that Mr.
I have a feeling that Mr. Diamon's "source close to MaineToday Media" is full of beans; I know a guy who used to work in their circulation department before the outsourcing, and every time _one_ customer missed _one_ paper, he'd get an earful. This "source" is talking about _thousands_ of people missing their papers - not just home delivery, but single-copy retailers, newspaper machines, various freebies, schools, and libraries. Seems to me that someone would have noticed.
The idea that MTM could keep that sort of absence under its hat seems...unlikely, to say the least. Also, if, as the post implies, it was near-impossible to find a Press-Herald on Friday and Saturday, then it would have also been impossible to find a Kennebec Journal or Morning Sentinel _anywhere,_ given that all three newspapers come out of the same plant these days and go through the same distribution department. It also would have been impossible to find a Boston Globe, New York Times, or Wall Street Journal in Maine, since they also come through the same distributor.
Either the people on these trucks chucked the PPH off the back and delivered the rest of the papers as usual, or something's a little fishy in this story. MaineToday Media has had its problems, sure, but it'll take more work than this to convince me that this is one of them.
I doubt very much the source is "full of beans."
I doubt very much the source is "full of beans."
Hudson-RPM delivers the Press Herald daily to Oxford, Androscoggin and portions of Kennebec Counties under a contract that I helped draft while at the Press Herald in the Blethen days.
In addition to making a "per copy" profit on each copy sold, Hudson is paid a significant Transportation Fee (at the time I signed the contract, upwards of $1400.00 weekly) to compensate for the fact that there was not enough of a circulation in these areas to offset the cost of delivery.
As a wholesaler of Newspapers and Magazines, Hudson has an individual contract with every publication they resell. So, if the Boston Globe were to violate the contract by not paying whatever transportation fee had been agreed to, Hudson-RPM would still be required, under the contracts with the other publications, to deliver their routes even without the Globe.
What Al's source was saying is that Maine Today violated the contract with Hudson by not remitting the transportation fee. Hudson still went out that morning and delivered the other papers, because they were contractually obligated to do so. They did not deliver the Press Herald for two mornings, because they were not paid.
The rest of the state, including the Greater Portland area, is delivered through a transportation system that combines the use of independent delivery contractors that deliver to single copy drops and the delivery services provided under a $14 million dollar per year contract with Ryder Integrated Solutions, who delivers home delivery papers to the 5 remaining Press Herald distribution centers. The bill for Ryder is the last bill they wouldn't pay. Missing a payment to them would shut down the paper.
Because Hudson handles less than 1000 Press Heralds per day (2008 numbers - probably closer to <500 now,) it is entirely possible that "no one noticed," as customers in Lewiston would be used to not seeing a Press Herald on a newsstand that receives very few papers a day and often sells out of what was in 2008 the 2-5 copy average-per-store Hudson delivers. It also makes sense that Hudson would be a bill they would skip if they are in "pick and choose" mode with regard to payables, because of the low number of effected readers.
Regards,
Jeff Spofford
The Portland Daily Sun