Editing Paperboy

{{short description|Boy who delivers newspapers}}
{{about|boys delivering newspapers to subscribers|newspaper street vendors|Newspaper hawker|other uses}}
[[File:Toronto Star paperboy Whitby.jpg|thumb|upright|A paperboy for the ''[[Toronto Star]]'' in [[Whitby, Ontario]], Canada, 1940]]
A '''paperboy''' is someone{{snd}}often an older [[child]] or [[adolescent]]{{snd}}who distributes printed [[newspaper]]s to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by [[bicycle]] or [[automobile]]. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th century, this was often a young person's first job, perhaps undertaken before or after school. This contrasts with the newsboy or [[newspaper hawker]], now extremely rare in Western nations, who would sell newspapers to passersby on the street, often with very vocal promotion. They were common when multiple daily papers in every city{{snd}}as many as 50 in [[New York City]] alone{{snd}}competed.

==History==
[[File:Paperboy license 1970 New York State.jpg|thumb|Paperboy license for boys under age 14 in 1970 when girls were not allowed to deliver newspapers in New York State]]

The paperboy occupies a prominent place in the popular memory of many countries, including the [[United Kingdom]], [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[New Zealand]], [[Ireland]], and [[Japan]]. This is because it has long been the first paying job available to young boys. Newspaper industry lore suggests that the first paperboy, hired in 1833, was 10-year-old Barney Flaherty who was hired after seeing an advertisement in the Sun News and signing up for the job.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/new-york-irish-paperboy.amp |title = Ten-year-old Barney Flaherty was New York's first paperboy in 1833}}</ref>

The duties of a paperboy varied by distributor,<ref name="MiceChat-1943-Routes">{{cite web |last1=Gurr |first1=Bob |title=DESIGN: Those Were The Times - No.24 1943 Movie Stars and Paper Routes |url=https://www.micechat.com/51265-design-times-24-1943-movie-stars-paper-routes/ |website=MiceChat |access-date=7 March 2022 |date=11 December 2013}}</ref> but usually included counting and separating papers, rolling papers and inserting them in [[newspaper bag]]s during inclement weather, and collecting payments from customers.<ref name=grewup>{{cite news |agency=AP |author=Julia Malakie |title=While you were sleeping, the paperboy grew up |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12485231 |website=msnbc.com |access-date=December 20, 2019 |date=April 26, 2006}}</ref>

The number of paperboys experienced a major decline. This is due partly to the disappearance of afternoon newspapers, whose delivery times worked better for school-aged children than did those of morning papers, which were typically delivered before 6 a.m. The numbers have also been affected by changing demographics, the availability of news and newspapers on the Internet; employment laws (particularly the mid-20th century ban of [[child labour]]), the decline of small towns that could be traversed by bicycle, and growing concerns for the safety of un-escorted children, all of which have led many newspapers to switch to delivery by adults. Today, they are mainly used by weekly [[Weekly newspaper|community newspaper]]s and free shopper papers, which still tend to be delivered in the afternoons. Alternatively, sometimes paperboys are only employed once a week to deliver the paper on Sunday. Many deliveries these days are by adults in cars,<ref name=grewup/> known as newspaper carriers. They have traditionally been hired by the newspapers as independent contractors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kmco.com/resource-center/article/looking-forward/some-states-do-not-recognize-newspaper-carriers-as-independent-contractors/ |title=Some States Do Not Recognize Newspaper Carriers as Independent Contractors |publisher=Kreischer Miller |date=June 14, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Gabrielle Canon |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/14/newspapers-carveout-carriers-ab-5-ab-170-california-delivery-labor/2316176001/ |title=Late-night win for California newspapers: Lawmakers OK 1-year exemption to AB 5 for carriers |newspaper=USA Today |date=September 14, 2019 }}</ref>

[[File:Rikkancs.JPG|thumb|Paperboy]]

== See also ==
* [[Bicycle messenger]]
* [[Child labour]]
* [[Newsagent's shop]]
* [[Newspaper Carrier Day]]
* [[Paperboys (documentary)|''Paperboys'' (documentary)]]
* [[Newspaper delivery bag]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Newsboys}}
* Preus Museum. [https://www.flickr.com/photos/preusmuseum/sets/72157628680143649 Lewis Hine, Newspaperboys] photos.
* Vincent DiGirolamo, [https://vincentdigirolamo.com/ Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys] (Oxford University Press, 2019).

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Newspaper distribution]]
[[Category:Newspaper people]]
[[Category:Child labour]]
[[Category:Children by occupation]]