NPR, May 2025
The state of New York is doing away with allowing kids as young as 11 to deliver newspapers. We take a look back at this iconic summer job.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Extra, extra, hear all about it. Have we got some news for you. The state of New York is doing away with allowing kids as young as 11 to deliver newspapers.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Like newsies?
MARTÍNEZ: Kind of like that, those kids are on their bikes tossing freshly printed newspapers on the doorsteps in the early morning. Now, newsies started delivering papers as early as 1833. That’s according to the nonprofit Poynter Institute. Today, there are fewer papers to deliver as local publications scale back due to falling advertising revenue and also the prevalence of online news. The Local News Initiative reported last year that overall circulation has decreased by more than 60% since 2005… OK, so let’s look back at this classic youth job.
