Ow, ow, ow! Stop it -- you're hurting my head!

"Just when I thought I was out, they PULL me back in!"

No way. If I ever go back to newspapers, it will be back into the marketing
side, period. No more dealing with drunk contract haulers at 2 AM, thank
you!

I much preferred my years in marketing, where I never had to actually *do*
any work. All I had to do was come up with ideas that *others* had to
implement. (And if the concepts failed in the field, it was OBVIOUSLY the
fault of the soldiers on the ground who were incapable of properly
implementing the plan -- right?)

Too bad running my newspaper distribution company was so danged profitable.
It just about ruined my health -- but newspapers were willing to pay
whatever it took to remove *that* particular headache from their hands...

Nah... Our stuff works! Besides, many of the papers where we do
installations don't have DCs. They go out the window with route-based
bundle breaks to "ma and pa" carriers who won't stick around if their
stuff
is late. They gotta get back home to get their kids off to school, or get
to their day job!

Must be using employee-run distribution/circulation operations at those
newspapers. Newspapers that utilize contract distributors (like my old
company) don't give a **** whether the papers go out on time or not -- it
isn't *their* problem to deal with the ****ed-off drivers. It's a whole
different attitude at newspapers with employee district managers running the
carriers! (I've worked in both systems...)

I think the worst holdup I can remember we had was in Colorado. The
inserter was running so nicely, the operator kept bumping up the speed...
Finally, she got the thing up to about 22k/hr (faster than I have ever
seen
an inserter run in production!) All of a sudden, "BANG!" - it happened. A
few of the single-sheet inserts were blowing past the pockets from the
wind
generated by the jackets at 22k... Instead of falling inside the pockets,
they were blowing all over and in between. Eventually, a few of them got
wrapped around the main drive sprocket, and knocked the collator chain off
the sprocket. That in turn broke a series of pockets and brought the whole
machine to a screeching halt.

Ouch. Been there, done that.

The worst hold ups I've seen were when the Cedar Rapids Gazette brought
their new mailroom and press equipment on-line. Although their primary
problems were press-related (they actually ended up bringing suit against
Goss, it was so bad -- a losing battle, since Goss was bankrupt by that
time...), it always seemed that an inserter or conveyor would go down
whenever the press was "up".

We actually had to deliver newspapers at NOON one Sunday -- the papers were
NINE hours late, coming off the press. Many of my drivers had to go to
their regular jobs, and the ONLY thing that saved us was the fact that it
happened on a Sunday -- otherwise we would have lost them all.

My stomach churns just thinking about that day. And there were sooo many
like that, over the years...

I know the name and the logo, but I haven't met anyone over there. I was
going to use the "East Coast" excuse (both Miracom and NEWSTEC, our key
distributor, are based in the NorthEast), but looking at their website it
seems they have a couple papers out my way now, too - upstate NY and PA...
According to E&P they are up to 38...

I finally just let my Editor & Publisher subscription lapse, after some 15+
years as a subscriber. Now that we've survived 14 months with the inn --
thus far, successfully -- I'm hopeful that I can let the rest of my
newspaper skills atrophy...

Wow -- they've got 38 products now? Impressive.

If you do hit Lee up, be prepared -- they're so tight, they make Gannett
look like drunken sailors... :-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"