Some 'wise men' say it is dying. Well, it might or might not be but its absence on the teapoy, next to a cup of steaming tea, blemishes many a man's idea of a perfect morning. Those of you who get that edgy feeling without flipping its pages at dawn would be familiar with this character by now and for those of you who are pretending you still didn't get it, it comes by the name of the Times, the Post, the Mail, and the Tribunal to cite a few.
Newspapers go through a long process, each time, before you hear the 'tring tring' at the gate and that folded material flying at you when you open you front door. (I'm definitely talking in the Indian context here.) All those empty hours at the desk before the reporters file their copies, wait a minute copies are in, and all those hours between this and the deadline which seem shorter than ever. The pages, once released, go to the controllers and then to the press around midnight.
Subsequently, newspapers reach the circulation centres hours before daybreak, usually packed in bundles of 80. The distributors pay upfront for the day's newpapers and stack it according to their distribution areas. They receive their monthly payments from the subscribers.
These distributors are unionized. For most of them, newspaper circulation is a second job for some addition revenue, besides their regular occupations.
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| Newspapers reach the circulation centre usually packed in bundles of 80. |
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| One of the distributors loading the required newspapers, for which he would have paid upfront, on to his bicycle. |
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| A distributor arranging newspapers according to his circulation route. |
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| One of the circulation centres at Connaught Place, New Delhi |
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