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EXCLUSIVE: Newspaper delivery disruption hits convenience stores

Newspaper distributors blamed a cut-off extension agreed by publishers for Friday night/Saturday morning due to the England versus Italy football match

Telegraph newspapers

An agreed cut-off extension and reruns on The Telegraph were to blame for the late delivery of newspapers to hundreds of retailers last weekend. 

Data seen by Better Retailing revealed a total of 376 reruns were carried out on 24 September on The Telegraph, with 114,753 copies involved, affecting 7,612 retailers. 

On the same day, 13,935 retail delivery times (RDT) were missed by wholesalers, with almost 50% between 30 minutes and 60 minutes after RDT. 

James Wilkinson, owner of Pybus Newsagent in York, told Better Retailing he received his paper order from Menzies an hour and 15 minutes late. 

“The papers on the days after have arrived relatively earlier, so I suspect there was an issue with the sheer volume of titles having to be dealt with,” he said. “As a result, I had to bring in extra staff to get them out to customers. 

“A lot of my paper girls and boys have other jobs to get to on the weekend, and by the time my delivery came they had gone.” 

The Fed‘s head of news, Brian Murphy, said: “Sadly, too much is left to chance and the contingency plans have to be reviewed, so that they are fit to resolve problems. 

“This is important to do now as we have entered a period whereby the distribution of newspapers is being challenged further and I don’t want to witness a further example of food to go taking priority over newspapers when they are late.” 

Chair of The Fed’s news committee, Muntazir Dipoti, added: “In stark contrast to the communication at the time of the Queen passing, last Saturday was a particularly bad day for newspaper deliveries, and no one has issued an apology. 

“The supply chain needs to improve its ability to react in real-time when there are issues, so retailers can be updated as to what is happening.” 

Both wholesalers told Better Retailing the issues were due to a cut-off extension agreed by publishers for Friday night/Saturday morning due to the England versus Italy football match. 

Smiths also confirmed there were a large number of reruns on The Telegraph that affected depots. The firm confirmed a letter was sent out to stores regarding the extension, and a message was sent out on SNapp once it understood reruns were happening. 

Menzies added that “all customers were notified in advance of the extension and, on the day, delivery updates were posted to the whiteboard accessible to customers via i-Menzies”. 

The Telegraph was approached for comment. 

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