Newspaper carriers may be a dying breed

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Donny Foster believes the news will go on without him.

The 13-year-old carrier of the Stillwater Evening Gazette doesn't think there will be newspaper carriers in 2020 or beyond.

"You'll lose the paperboy, but you'll still get the paper either off the Internet or by fax or something," he said. "I think there will be cars that will be electronic, and there'll be more, like, digital stuff. It will be more high-tech."

Donny speculates on the future of his after-school job in a new documentary film called "Paperboys." The documentary, which was filmed last summer in Stillwater and Oak Park Heights, was produced by Andy Spade, husband of handbag designer Kate Spade and brother of actor David Spade.

The 41-minute film looks at newspaper carriers and their place in American culture. Directed by music video director Mike Mills, the film features six paperboys, ranging in ages 11 to 14, and features scenes from the St. Croix River to the boys zoning out playing Nintendo.

The boys discuss their contributions to the Stillwater community, describing their paper routes as a "bridge" and "social structure" to keeping people connected.

In the film, Donny's father, Tim Foster, said the job has taught his son to be responsible. "You have to be there to do it every day," Tim Foster says. "There's been a couple of occasions that he thought that doing other things was a higher priority and we have had to tell him, 'Papers come first,' but it's been good."

A seventh-grader at Oak-Land Junior High, Donny is filmed in one scene training a friend in the art of paper delivering while riding his BMX bike.

"Don't be dropping the ads," he warns.

Each month, Donny makes about $100 to $125 as a paperboy. His neighborhood route starts about 4 p.m. and takes up to 30 minutes by bike, but only half the time if he gets a ride.

"I like the money. I spend it on stuff I want or need or put it in my bank account," he says. "I just got a bike last fall."

Another paperboy, Brandon Kindschy, 14, describes the regimen he faces on his Monday-through-Friday route.

"You have to make sure that your list is correct and go over it about every day," he says in the film. "You have to make sure that it gets there, so that when you throw it, it doesn't go off to the side or get into the bushes or something. Working hard is important because it shows that you're actually doing a good job and you're not slacking and you're showing good customer service and that's what they like. They like to see that you work hard."

Sporting a Brett Favre Green Bay Packers jersey, the Stillwater Junior High School student tells filmmakers what it may be like for newspaper carriers in the future. "I think that there probably might be a paperboy, but I don't know," he says. "It's kind of hard to tell."