Access to 175 Different Newspapers > While Living In Jamaica
I decided to share this article’s information with readers, simply because I think expats living or moving to Jamaica may get excited by knowing that they can have access to newspapers from home countries delivered daily or monthly to their doorsteps.
I was aware of this service being offered in Kingston several months ago after my husband found out about it from a friend. We proceeded to try it, and while I loved receiving the Sunday Washington Post, we somehow never quite followed up on the service for ourselves.
When I saw the same business being featured in the Gleaner newspaper earlier this week, I felt compelled to share it with readers.
One Paperboy – 175 different newspapers
Meeting local demand for int’l news
By Ross Sheil Online Co-ordinator rsheil@jamaicaobserver.com
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
While the Jamaican newspaper market is dominated by two companies, the Observer and the Gleaner, one small player is delivering international diversity to local readers.
Started by Englishman Geoff Lewis as a one-man business in Christmas 2005 Paperboy JA is licensed by international distributors Diginewspress to print 175 different titles from over 50 countries, which it delivers each morning to subscribers islandwide.
The following June, Lewis signed an islandwide distribution agreement with the Gleaner. Previously he delivered newspapers by car himself – and on occasions when that broke down, his motorbike. While he has since expanded his workforce to five staff members, the entrepreneur still works long hours and sometimes involves himself in the printing process – printing and distributing the titles 362 days of the year.
“I was actually working as skipper on a yacht in Antigua when my contract came to an end and I saw this guy selling newspapers and it looked interesting and having lived here already (for six months), I wondered why it wasn’t here in Jamaica already,” said Lewis, whose background includes running his own t-shirt printing business back home in London.
Hotels make up a large proportion of his sales as do embassies – readers keen to catch up on news from their own country. He also reports a growing number of Jamaicans interested in following world news via Paperboy – mainly those working in the financial sector but also other professions including attorneys and the police force as well as returning residents interested in staying in touch with their former home.
Cont.
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