Distribution notes
Not counting the approximately 1,000 copies shipped out of Vancouver or sent to subscribers, 5,190 copies of issue 133 of The Republic were distributed March 2 to 73 locations throughout the city.
Of issue 132, 5,024 copies had been distributed February 16, and 1,015 of those were found left behind two weeks later, showing that 4,009 copies were picked up by readers, a pick-up rate of 80%.
This is down from the 86% pick-up rate achieved by issue 131. Our five-issue running average pick-up rate is now 80.3%, and the five-issue running average of copies picked up is 4,093.
Commercial Drive received 33% of issue 133, having returned just 12% of its allotment of issue 132; Downtown received 24% of 133, after returning 17% of its copies of issue 132; the West End and Kits received 33% of issue 133 after returning 21% of issue 132; and Main Street got 10% of 133, after returning a whopping 40% of issue 132. Five issues ago, Commercial Drive was receiving 28%; Downtown, 26%; the West End and Kits, 38%; and Main Street, 8%.
The woman who threw away all copies of The Republic, as well as all copies of all other papers, at Cuppa Joe at Broadway and Main, appears to be a one-off incident. That’s good, because about 100 copies are usually picked up at that site alone.
Though upwards of 200 copies were being distributed and picked up at two sites in West Vancouver, we have been unable to catch or stop the person who often gets to them first and trashes them, and so we’ve suspended that experiment for now.
Granville Island Public Market, by the eating area, also continues to be a problem site: someone is trashing all 200 copies placed for distribution there. It’s hard to say how many would be picked up if he left them alone. A year ago, before he began doing his dirty work on “that commie rag” (as he called it on an anonymous website posting), 200 copies would be distributed there, and only 20 or so found remaining.
Higher Ground, a café at Broadway and Vine, is a new addition to the distribution run, and early results are mixed, suggesting that the papers may be getting thrown out. The first two issues dropped there, at quantities of 20 and then 30, were completely gone, but then, of 30 copies of issue 132 left there, 23 were found remaining. Thirty of issue 133 were then left, and we shall see what’s what when 134 is brought around today.
It takes about seven hours to complete the roughly 50-km distribution route, visiting each of the 73 locations. At current gas prices, that distance costs about $4.75 in fuel in the little Toyota I use, or about the cost of two fares on the bus.
I burn a little over a milk jug (four litres) of fuel, four out of the four trillion litres of oil burned around the globe every seven hours, or .0000000001%.
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