Go direct to my main blog via link below:

I set up several sites on the same topic. I did this so that the google spyders will register the titles of the blogs so that when you put in search terms about the AJC that there is a greater chance of my sites being located. There is one main site and several others, like this one, to direct you to the 'home site' for this complaint.

Click on this link to go directly to the main blog site:

http://www.atlantajournal-constitution.blogspot.com

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ACI is the distributor for the AJC litter, they are having serious problems in Boston, here is the info FYI:

Monday, January 4, 2016

Globe splits deliveries between two companies

JOHN IOVEN/GLOBE STAFF/FILE

The Boston Globe has rehired a former distribution partner to help fix its delivery problems.

By Mark Arsenault GLOBE STAFF  JANUARY 06, 2016
After more than a week of confounding problems getting newspapers to subscribers, The Boston Globe has turned to its former distribution partner to handle about half of its home deliveries across the region, Globe chief executive officer Mike Sheehan said on Tuesday.

The deal with Publishers Circulation Fulfillment Inc. follows an unexpectedly difficult rollout for the Globe’s new distribution firm, ACI Media Group Inc., which left tens of thousands of newspapers undelivered in its first week after taking over distribution within the Boston region on Dec. 28.

PCF will take over the routes starting Monday, and may help with delivery of this Sunday’s paper. Sheehan predicted “an extremely rapid return to 100 percent deliveries and improved customer service.’’“We can’t apologize too much,” Sheehan said, moments after the new deal was consummated. 

Maryland-based PCF has agreed to resume Globe deliveries throughout a swath of territory defined roughly as extending from the Cape Cod Canal to Boston and west to Wellesley and Weston, as well as territory north of Boston from Peabody to Newburyport, and east to Rockport. This territory includes about 50 percent of the home delivery customers in the greater Boston market, Sheehan said.

Globe, new distributor trade blame

The day ended with no clarity about when all subscribers could once again count on getting their newspapers.

ACI will ideally devote its delivery resources to fewer subscribers in more confined geographic areas, places they’ve avoided significant problems, Sheehan said. “This simplifies things for them and will allow them to be successful,” Sheehan said. The distribution areas shifting to PCF are the ones where ACI had experienced the most problems making its deliveries, Globe officials said.

The move comes after two days of negotiations with the companies, during which ACI agreed to take the reduced role, Sheehan said.   “These were not at all contentious negotiations,” Sheehan said of the talks with ACI, a Long Beach, Calif., company

In a statement, ACI president Jack Klunder said, “We understand how important The Boston Globe is to its subscribers and the community at large, and this will help restore delivery dependability as quickly as possible.” Klunder apologized for “disappointing some readers as we entered the market.”

ACI officials acknowledged in interviews Sunday that after a week on the job, they still did not have enough drivers to cover all the routes. The company said it was aggressively trying to hire more, but faulted the Globe for not properly warning its readers about the disruptions that would come with the switch.

The Globe has about 115,000 daily subscribers and 205,000 on Sunday. About 90,000 daily and 190,000 Sunday subscribers live within the territory ACI took over last month.

The breakdown of home delivery triggered overwhelming frustration and anger from readers, who flooded the paper with complaints that so overwhelmed the telephone system it made it difficult for reporters to place calls from the newsroom. Globe staff from departments throughout the organization volunteered to deliver the paper last Sunday, the largest distribution day of the week.

Sheehan said Globe executives came back to PCF “to get newspapers back into the hands of our readers as quickly as possible.”  Asked what the paper has learned from the disastrous past 10 days, Sheehan gave a rueful smile and said, “Where do you want me to start? My God.”

“It is extremely difficult to do something like this without a transition period,” he offered. “To flip a switch overnight is more disruptive than anyone would have ever imagined.”

“And more important,” he said, “for a company that’s about to invest a lot of money in a print production facility in Taunton, it’s a reaffirmation of how important the print product is and is going to be for a long time.”

“We learned how many people in this market for whom the [printed] Globe is their link to the outside world.”  And, he said, the paper learned, “Never let down the customers again.”

 Delivery problems could last up to 6 months, distributor says


The Boston Globe got a double-whammy of bad news regarding its switch to a new delivery service.

Boston Globe staffers helped deliver the Sunday print edition amid delivery service woes.

Suzanne Kreiter / The Boston Globe

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By Eric Levenson Boston.com Staff | 01.04.16 | 11:53 AM

Delivery problems with The Boston Globe’s new circulation service affected up to 10 percent of newspaper subscribers, and it could take four to six months before service returns to normal, the Globereports.

That’s a double-whammy of bad news for the Globe, which last weekswitched delivery companies from Publishers Circulation Fulfillment to ACI Media Group.

Globe chief executive Mike Sheehan said the switch was part of a plan to provide better service, and that ACI brought “material” cost savings. Sheehan told the Globe he would not have made the switch if they had known the severity of the coming service problems.

“Ten percent of our people not getting papers?” he said. “That was never communicated to us. That goes far beyond any reasonable definition of disruption.”

However, ACI executive Jack Klunder said the company had warned the Globe of coming disruptions. Klunder said service will get back to normal in four to six months.

“We were adamant that these guys communicate to the readers early and often about the disruption that would take place,” Klunder said. “We were pretty clear about that and I’m not sure the communication plan was as graphic as I suggested it should be.”

In a show of good faith, teams of editorial and business staffers for the Globe volunteered to help deliver the Sunday paper.

One key problem with the service was made clear when the volunteers were handed a delivery route “that appeared to have been prepared by someone under the influence of methamphetamine,” columnist Kevin Cullen wrote Monday morning.

“The route wasn’t circuitous. It was circus. If you handed an Etch-a-Sketch to a really drunk guy and told him to turn the knobs, that’s what our route would look like,” he wrote.