Providence Journal Dropped from Leading East Side Shop for Lack of Sales

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

GoLocalProv News Team and Kate Nagle

 

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Dropped the Projo due to lack of sales and distribution issues.

The East Side Mart is the convenience store located in the Elmgrove Avenue retail strip in one of Rhode Island's most affluent and highly educated neighborhoods.

The shop has now stopped carrying the Providence Journal — it has carried the paper for more than 40 years since the 1970s.

“We Have That! Eastside Mart pretty much has everything!” is the store’s motto for Paul Smith and his family who have owned the store since 2007.

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It is the neighborhood 'go-to' spot to pick up some milk, buy a lottery ticket, grab a pint of premium ice cream, and up until the past month, buy a newspaper.

“Realistically, we were doing about $2000 a month in papers, but in the past, we did $4000.  We had just the ProJo and the New York Times. We were getting seven copies of ProJo and seven of the Times -- at those numbers, they weren’t even selling out. Previously, we used to have ten a day and those we weren't selling out [before we cut down],” said Smith, owner of the Mart. 

For newspapers, the hope for the future is that highly educated and affluent consumers will continue to buy the paper version.

For residents in the neighborhood — the Blackstone neighborhood — the median household income is $127,000 a year.

And, 84 percent of the residents attended college. In contrast, the average Providence household income is just $37,000 and the percentage that attended college in Providence is just 30 percent.

For the Providence Journal’s parent company, the loss of distribution through a convenience store in Providence may be the least of their problems.

At the Providence Journal, the newsroom has been gutted by layoffs, early retirement buyouts, and retirements. A newsroom in the 1980s which once had more than 300 now has around 15 news reporters to cover all of Rhode Island.

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GateHouse has been closing newspapers in RI and across the country.

Closing Papers Across the Country

In April, GateHouse, the parent company of the Providence Journal, closed the Newport Mercury, a paper that dated back to 1758.

Last month, GateHouse closed one of Missouri’s oldest newspapers, The Carthage Press, which had published since 1984.

In California, CBS Sacramento reported in August that “A newspaper unexpectedly shuttered its doors after nearly 140 years of serving the area. The Gridley Herald published the last issue of the weekly paper in its 137-year history on Friday.”

“Staff were abruptly told on Thursday that the newspaper issue they were putting together on Friday would be the last by representatives from its parent company, GateHouse Media,” according to the TV station.

One staffer, David Vantress, @sportsguydave66, Tweeted, “It’s with great sadness that I announce that today was my last day as sports reporter for the Gridley Herald.  Our corporate owners at Gatehouse Media informed us today...while we were putting out Friday’s paper...that it would be our last. We are being shut down to save money. 7:59 PM - 30 Aug 2018 from Gridley, CA"

And, there have been other recent closures of GateHouse newspapers.

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The Boston Globe has suffered through delivery and printing issues over the past few years.

Back on the East Side, distribution was also a problem

Smith said part of the problem with the Providence Journal was due to the outsourced delivery company.

“Again, a lot of the drop off was the delivery company -- who would often deliver the wrong papers. Sometimes we got the CVS bundle, for instance.  It's been about a month since we stopped doing it -- and I'll have folks coming in not knowing we're not selling them, so if they're not looking at it once a month, that tells you something,” said Smith.

The Providence Journal is not the only paper to have distribution problems. The Boston Globe had months of delivery issues in 2016 which went on for months.

“We probably only had 10 customers who wanted it [Providence Journal] regularly. If it was any other product I would have cut it many years ago. There's no profit, a lot of hassle and not a lot of thank yous. It doesn't draw in customers like it used to. I do miss seeing the regulars,” said Smith.

“I’ve got some feedback from customers about getting it at home -- they switched to home delivery when they ran the promotion last year, and now they're upset they took away the promotion and now it's expensive to get at home. Last week someone said they didn't even get a paper, and another [customer] said it came at 10 AM on Sunday,” added Smith.

 

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