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Imagine John Henry standing alone at a table in a warehouse full of undelivered Globes

The Globe itself gives us an anatomy of the home-delivery disaster, and reveals, for the first time, that John Henry visited one of those distribution centers:

"It's 6,400 papers," he said, grimly, to no one in particular.

Meanwhile, crickets quietly chirp at the timid tabloid, where the last story about the Globe, on Dec. 11, was about its move to a downtown office building.

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In this and a previous article, the Globe insists that part of the problem was the the old "twisting streets" and "cowpaths". What a crock of bull patties. The routes were FUBAR. Leave it at that. Dont blame the cowpaths, very few of, if any, actually exist.

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“Because route sequencing is a relatively easy part of such a difficult process, our team never called out sequencing as a major problem until we learned of it in real time,” said Andrew Perlmutter, executive vice president of Boston Globe Media Partners, who led the project.

This is what happens when the one dimensional " it looks good on paper" meets the real three dimensional world of time , space . and distance .

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... Andrew Perlmutter is a 31-year-old biz school whiz kid who worked for a couple of years each managing digital properties for Newsweek and The Atlantic. He's the head business guy for digital at The Globe.

He has zero experience at newspapers or in newspaper circulation, and today's Globe piece understates how furiously the management types at the Globe with experience in circulation fought Perlmutter's plan to switch to ACI overnight.

This is John Henry's Boston Globe Media Partners.

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Not just business school grad. HARVARD business school.

This guy was also the leader who oversaw BDC's messed up new editorial "strategy" 2014-2015 that resulted in retractions, firings, and eggs on faces at the BG.

But hey new media synergies disrupting the old order FTW.

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I guess they finally figured out how to find my house - a paper was delivered, right at the front door, triple-bagged!

It came sometime after 9:00, and a day after they processed my cancellation request. ( It took 12 days to get an email response for my cancellation request.) But I got a paper!

Some poor person must have finally been assigned to my route, and they are doing a great job, but it must still be a difficult route, based on the time the paper was delivered.

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Maybe tomorrow will be my turn!! Two Sundays, no paper :-(

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The key seems to be cancelling.

They said they had "processed my cancellation request" on Friday, then I finally got the paper yesterday and today.

It was right by the front door, and today it was even on time!

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In my section of West Cambridge, I've been noticing Globes delivered to empty apartments/houses -- ones that have recently been sold, and the new owner hasn't yet moved in, or something like that. I've noticed it at 3 different places, but usually only for one day at each place..

Maybe they hired the old Globe Direct delivery service.

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This is what happens when those in charge do not think things through fully. Delivery is something many businesses do not care much about these days. They would rather just hire people to do it per job and then load them up knowing it can not get done in a specified period of time.

I bought a new bed from Bob's discount on Rt 1 in Saugus a couple years ago and had it delivered. They told me to be home between 1pm and 3pm so I took the day off of work, took the morning to clear out the room and hung out until 1pm. By 3 it was clear they were not going to be there on time, I called and the store said "soon soon." Same at 4, then 5, then 6 and 7. So I call at 7 and am much more aggressive but hang up to wait. At 8pm I call again and demand my delivery money back, we go back and forth until he finally breaks and says "if we returned the money of every person who had a late delivery we would go broke" the words hung in the air and I said "soooo this happens often then?" he stammers for a bit and offers me a discount on my next purchase at Bobs, I laugh and suggested maybe I should come into the showroom and discuss it with him in person during his next sale when the store is busy, he finally gives me back my delivery money.

10:30pm the truck finally pulls up, I was going out with some friends (Friday night) so was walking out the door when they pulled up. At first I said just forget it but I saw the delivery drivers face and said fine. They were great, they set it up for me and we chatted for a bit. They showed me the route they were expected to do in 8 hours and the number of deliveries. I got them each a soda, I was their last job and they seemed happy to find someone who was listening. The store overbooks deliveries because they know I would never accept a 10pm delivery time if I could help it. The drivers were also indie contractors so got paid by the job, as it turns out when someone gets a refund they do not get paid for that delivery. Feeling bad, I gave them the money I had paid for delivery as a tip, it was delivered and it was not their fault... as long as Bobs did not get the money I did not care.

I know that was a long story but it seems to be the state of that particular type of service in America today. It is all about selling the item and then worrying about delivery later figuring most people will not complain or cancel.

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Bob's may as well be the Wal-Mart of the furniture big box stores. They could give a f*ck about their customers and the same goes for their employees, independent contractors, or what have you. It's all about making a buck and screwing everyone else over in the process.

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Most consumers don't care about anything beyond the price. If they were offered the same item from two stores with the price being 10% higher at one store but a higher level of post-sale service most would still buy the item from the cheaper store and take their chances. You went to Bob's and not Boston Interiors after all.

When customers start caring about things like delivery (as in, they are willing to pay more for it) then you'll see the quality improve.

Back to Globe, John Henry took a bet that people didn't value delivery that much and even with worse service he won't lose too many subscribers. Time will tell if his bet pays off.

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The Globe has often seemed like the only reputable news outlet. However, the Globe management apparently trying to sell out the city to the Olympics scammers, via Shirley Leung, sent a discouraging message about the organization's direction.

Imagine if the Herald did a cultural remodeling, and decided "We're going to speak first to the blue collar, but no more sensationalism, no more petty agendas, and our journalism will be impeccable." That would be awesome. Then the Globe company could either shape up, or refocus on its less-challenging Boston.com and Globe Direct personalities.

(And who is going to take STAT seriously, after Shirley Leung showed how the Globe company approaches business and development news. Will it just be a write-only trade rag for various corporate communications people.)

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.

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It read like a human interest fluff piece instead of a business piece on management failures.

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story time.

I started delivering newspapers when I was about 11or 12, by the time I was 13 I worked out of the local globe delivery office. Friday nights and Saturday afternoons were spent 'subbing' the newspapers which meant inserting each section ( living arts, real estate etc) to form the whole Sunday paper . I think we subbed around 10k papers every week. shitty, dirty work but it was fun working with some friends.

on Sundays I arrived at the office by 5 AM to prepare the last section of the newspaper (which was the newspaper itself.) Then I would go with drivers (not the green globe trucks, it was mostly crazy, alcoholic guys with vans and station wagons) to do routes all over the city. I'd be dropped on a corner with 50 or 75 papers and a list of addresses and I would deliver that neighborhood. I did routes in brighton finish, be driven to Roxbury and given a second pile. over and over until about 10 am when the last papers were delivered. sometimes the drivers would come back with DDs after the last route sometimes I walked home. usually pulled in about a hundred bucks for fri- sat- sun total.

john henry is an idiot.

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I'd be dropped on a corner with 50 or 75 papers and a list of addresses

Ever look at the back of that list of addresses? Those numbers are more interesting then what you'd find in the paper.

Sincerely,
The guy who canceled after the last time the Globe fucked up big time with delivery.

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Workers' side of the management debacle delivering the Globe
by Professor Aviva Chomsky

http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2016/01/boston-globe-workers-pr...

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Thanks for nothing John Henry

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The only thing received from the Globe on atimely basis was the bill. Haven't seen anything in the self serving editorials or columns about this. Do we get an amnesty?

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