No news is bad news

>> Newspapers' distribution practice keeps them off dépanneur shelves

by CRAIG SEGAL

When John DeMelo opened Photo-Mag Rachel four months ago, he fully expected to be selling daily newspapers. But DeMelo sells no dailies, despite the "Journaux" sign in his window. He can't afford to.

DeMelo, 47, is the former co-owner of Station 10, a legendary 1980s music venue. After 15 years in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, where he toiled in public works, DeMelo came back to Montreal and set up his small shop. He's struggling, and his newspaper problem is part of what has hurt business. At first DeMelo sold the Gazette, La Presse and the National Post. He says the papers promised to take returns--whereby the company compensates the vendor for unsold copies--and provide visual aids, like a rack and signs. But the aids never came. And the deliverymen refused to take returns, saying DeMelo wasn't selling enough papers. A month and a half later DeMelo dumped newspapers. "I felt like I was lied to," he says. "They give you the idea they're going to help you. Help never came." DeMelo says not having newspapers costs him a few hundred dollars a month in lost revenue, since newspaper buyers often become regular customers.

Other dep owners share the pain. They have steadily lost business to magazine stores, which are less affected by returns and delivery costs. "I remember having 10 copies of the Gazette on weekdays, and 30 on weekends," says Nelson Paciencia, owner of Dépanneur Paciencia on St-Urbain and Rachel. "They always took returns." As Internet-savvy customers bought fewer papers, delivery agencies became stricter about their return policies. Now Paciencia carries only the Gazette. Dep owner Mario Jagat is down to two Gazettes a day, one of which gets stolen every morning before he opens. "Some of my best customers don't come anymore," says Jagat at his popular dep at Duluth and Clark. "For the papers it's profit, profit, profit. They don't care about the little stores. But you can't complain. Life is money."

Deps are the latest casualty in a list of defunct newspaper distribution points. In 1970, Mayor Jean Drapeau declared war on newspaper boxes. "The pedestrian has the right to be on the sidewalk or on the street," he preached to the papers in December 1970. "The box has no right." (Boxes are still allowed on private property, as long as they are six metres from the sidewalk.) Drapeau also did away with the sidewalk stand.

Newspapers say they distribute papers where they sell. La Presse says they can't afford to distribute less than six papers to any shop. And the shop must sell at least 75 per cent of those six papers a day, or La Presse will not take returns. "We prefer places where we sell 20, 30 or 40 a day," says Hubert De Carufel, assistant director of sales. "These days people prefer to stop at one shop that sells everything they need."

Enn Raudsepp, head of the Concordia Journalism Department, says cutting back on vendors harms street life. "The more people can do in the street the more likely they are to congregate, and the more likely they are to talk to each other," he says. Besides, he adds, it's bad marketing. "Selling only in central locations reaches only the converted. It's the casual buyers you want to get and those you can only get at the local level."