Delivering more than newspapers

Teri Saylor

Special to Publishers' Auxiliary

Sep 1, 2024

Owning a small group of weekly newspapers, magazines and a printing plant across central Missouri keeps Trevor Vernon busy in his hometown of Eldon. But he’s never too busy to explore new business ventures.

Last year, he discovered an opportunity to partner with Amazon, delivering packages for the online giant and earning enough revenue to support a full-time position. It all started when he noticed Amazon had joined the Eldon Chamber of Commerce.

Eldon is a town of about 4,500 situated halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis, south of Jefferson City.

“It seemed strange to me that Amazon would want to belong to our chamber of commerce in Eldon, so I went down there and talked with the chamber director about it,” Vernon said. “He told me about a program Amazon has for small businesses to help deliver packages.”

In 2022, Amazon launched a pilot program that created delivery hubs in rural parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Nebraska offering small businesses opportunities for partnerships involving the delivery of packages to Amazon’s customers. Businesses such as florists, restaurants and retailers handled Amazon delivery loads at a per-package rate within a 10-mile radius.

The pilot was successful enough for Amazon to expand its network of hubs to small towns across the country and is beginning to establish delivery networks in large cities, according to spokesperson Maya Vautier.

“We have around 1,500 delivery partners today,” Vautier estimated in a phone conversation. “Our partners range from gas stations to hairdressers, coffee shops and dry cleaners — all sorts of businesses.”

Now, she can add newspapers to that list and believes Vernon is the only publisher in the new hub network.

Last fall, Vernon applied for a partnership with a new Amazon hub in Eldon, but a different business got the job. As other hubs started opening in the region, the town of Tipton became a new option. It was a good fit for Vernon Publishing, which owns the Tipton Times, a 1,465 circulation weekly with four employees.

“So, we started delivering in Tipton, and after doing it for three or four months, the Eldon market opened back up, and we started delivering there, too,” Vernon said.

THIRD–GENERATION PUBLISHER

Vernon considers The Advertiser in Eldon, with 3,500 subscribers, as his company’s flagship newspaper.

“My grandpa bought The Advertiser in 1947, so it’s always kind of been our headquarters,” he said. “It’s where our printing plant is, and I don’t think we’ll ever move from there.”

With a growing stable of newspapers, Vernon Publishing is doing well. In July, Vernon purchased the St. Clair Courier in Osceola, the Appleton City Journal and Rich Hill Mining Review.

“We haven’t lost circulation in three or four years, and it’s an election year, so we’re having a good year in advertising, too,” he added.

In addition to being the local newspaper publisher, Vernon is the mayor of Eldon and says the town is on the rise.

“Eldon was not in a good spot eight or nine years ago, and then we started making some headway,” he said.

The Town of Eldon recently announced the expansion of a local manufacturer that will add over 200 new jobs to the landscape.

As Vernon tells it, he became mayor to do something positive for his town rather than criticize it.

Vernon, who has a college degree in finance, recalls complaining to his wife about some financial problems the city was experiencing.

“We have a policy in our family that states if you complain about a situation, you’ve got to try to figure out a way to fix it,” he said. “So, to answer my complaints about the town’s finances, my wife challenged me to find a way to fix them.”

Others around town had already encouraged him to run for mayor, so four years ago, he put his name on the ballot and beat out two opponents for the job. He was elected to his second term last April.

As the local newspaper publisher, he’s built a firewall between his newspaper’s editorial product and the mayor’s office.

“Before I was elected, I told everyone that I would not read any of the stories the editor or reporters wrote about me until they were printed, and I have stuck to that,” he said. “Occasionally, my reporters ask me for a quote, and I’ll give them a quote, but I stay on the business side of the newspaper.”

BOOSTING THE BOTTOM LINE

All of Vernon’s newspapers are delivered through the U.S. Post Office with no home delivery.

Delivering packages for Amazon has boosted his company’s bottom line and provided additional work for part–time employees.

From Amazon’s point of view, having local businesses help with delivery is a win-win partnership.

The online retailer typically works with businesses in both rural regions and large cities — both ends of the spectrum, Vautier said. The delivery territories range from 10 miles to two blocks.

“In rural areas, where distances are farther, instead of having one of our drivers drive out to all those different remote customers, we work through a hub partner to handle delivery to those customers,” she said. “In the big cities, like New York City, our drivers avoid dealing with traffic and parking issues by partnering with local businesses to make deliveries on foot within a two-block radius.”

She added that some of Amazon’s hub partners consider the program a great opportunity to earn extra revenue, especially if business is slow.

“Our partners also tell us it’s a good way to connect with their community and extend their marketing reach because they’re basically delivering to people who might already be customers,” she said.

For Vernon, this scenario has partially played out.

“We had a van that was not being used very often, maybe once a week, and now that van is moving and helping us make extra money,” he said.

Amazon pays its delivery partners by the package. The website states the average annual earnings are around $27,000, but Vernon says his partnership earns a little more.

However, running delivery routes in two markets proved challenging during a busy year, which included the purchase of two newspapers, and Vernon found his staff spread thin. He dropped the Eldon delivery hub.

“We may try to pick it back up in the future, but for now, Tipton is enough,” he said. “We just couldn’t keep up the pace.”

EVERYDAY DELIVERY

Amazon has several large warehouse fulfillment centers in Vernon’s region, and the packages his Tipton crew delivers come from the facility in Kansas City. Amazon delivers 360 days a year, including Christmas Day.

Amazon drivers deliver four or five large totes filled with 50–60 packages to the Tipton Times office seven days a week.

A part-time employee at the newspaper handles the delivery on most days. A reporter pitches in once or twice a week, unless she is hampered by deadlines.

One of the newspaper’s typesetters takes one day a week, too. Sometimes Vernon pitches in, especially on weekends when it’s hard for an employee to deliver.
“For a while, I was running over there quite a bit on weekends and delivering, but now we have a pretty good system in place, and I haven’t had to do it for a couple of months,” he said.

Packages usually arrive in the mornings. Amazon provides a phone app that guides delivery drivers though their route.

“We use the app to scan a bar code, and it maps out the route for the day,” Vernon said. “Normally, it takes about three hours to make the rounds, and it works out fairly well.”

Not all employees are suited to the package delivery gig. For one thing, they must be comfortable with mobile technology, apps and GPS systems.

Vernon recalls an employee who got frustrated with the process and never took to it.

“He couldn’t handle the technology part of the process and dealing with the app,” Vernon said. “It takes finding the right person that’s up on technology, so if they end up in the middle of a field and have to call tech support to figure out what to do, they are able to cope.”

IT’S WORKING IN TIPTON

Tipton has a population of about 2,000 residents, and the Tipton Times employees know almost everybody on their delivery routes. They often get story leads from Amazon customers and learn of problems, such as delayed newspaper delivery.

Vernon sees this as a benefit of doing business with Amazon.

“We’re visible all the time,” he said. “Our van now has an Amazon sticker along with the Tipton Times sign on its side, which is like a moving billboard for us, and I think that’s a good thing.”

He acknowledges that serving as an Amazon delivery hub is harder than he thought it would be.

“I thought we would just deliver packages during our down times, but that has not been the case,” he said.

The 10-mile delivery radius from the newspaper’s office can be 10 miles away. And if an employee has 15 minutes to spare, a 10-mile delivery doesn’t work. Vernon has discovered delivering packages is simply a three-or-four-hour assignment instead of just filling gaps in the work day.

According to Vautier, there are plenty of opportunities for newspapers to establish a hub partnership in their community.

“Anyone who is interested can just go to our website and apply to serve as a hub, and someone will get back with them to discuss their options,” she said. “We are still looking for a lot of partners.”

So far, Vernon plans to keep delivering packages in Tipton and might bring it back to Eldon. “We’re talking about starting a partnership at one of our other locations, too,” he said.

Vernon recently got a sweet hug from an anxious customer whose son was graduating from the police academy that day, and she had ordered party decorations to celebrate. She was worried they would not arrive in time.

“I dropped off her package, and she came out and called me a lifesaver,” he said. “I felt pretty good because she had been expecting it, and thank goodness we got it there when we did.”

Some publishers have criticized Vernon for contributing to “killing small business in brick and mortar,” but he responds that for the most part, those customers are already gone.

“The retail stores that used to compete with Amazon aren’t competing with them anymore,” he said. “I agree that it seemed weird in the beginning to go in and start working with Amazon to deliver packages, but now I’m comfortable with it. Someone’s going to get paid for doing it, and it might as well be us.”

Teri Saylor is a writer in Raleigh, N.C. Contact her at terisaylor@hotmail.com