The Messenger is the Medium

In this article, we explore the history of Swedish newspaper carriers through the lens of the union struggles within the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union. This focus allows us to make visible the influence of a profession that has largely been overlooked in media history. Mobilizing around working conditions, the workers put pressure on the newspapers in terms of the size and weight of the papers with consequences for the editorial work. There was also a strong stance against commercial advertising and additional supplements that had consequences for the financial situation of newspapers. Hence, through their union struggles newspaper carriers directly influenced the outlook of newspapers in Sweden in the post-war era. In extension, we consider newspaper carriers as soft media infrastructures that had a crucial role and influence on the formation of the Swedish public.


Introduction
Messengers, couriers, and carriers are a central part of media history.For millennia, news, rumors, writings, letters, and other information had to be carried by someone in order to reach its audience.This 'someone,' who takes on the role of a messenger, must be seen as a kind of 'medium'-a person located between the source and the recipient, who acts as a connection link that stores, mediates, and physically transmits information.In the past age of electronic communication and mass media, couriers and carriers played a central role.For example, as Gregory Downey has shown, the telegraph depended on messenger boys who carried messages from citizens' homes to the telegraph stations and vice versa. 1 Aside from one-to-one communication, carriers also played a key role in the distribution of mass media.The physical objects-including newspapers, magazines, almanacs, and catalogs-produced by the mass media needed to be transported and carried to reach their intended audience.Of these objects, the newspaper was perhaps the most popular, with a mass audience since the mid-1800s.
This article focuses on newspaper distribution in Sweden; more specifically, on newspaper carriers.The distribution of newspapers has been arranged in different ways in different societies and at different times.In some regions, the postal service used to be responsible for the distribution of newspapers; in other areas, newspapers were not distributed to homes at all.In Sweden morning newspapers have been distributed to homes during the night by a specific group of newspaper carriers since the late 1800s.This group and its members' labour comprise an overlooked area of media history; incidentally, they are now slowly disappearing from history altogether as the distribution of newspapers increasingly transitions to digital platforms.Although our empirical focus might seem narrow, it serves the purpose of making a more general argument: that the routine distribution work of newspaper carriers and their union struggles have affected the development of newspapers in Sweden.The content and form of newspapers have been affected not only by creative media workers (i.e.journalists, editors, etc.) dealing with 'symbol creation' and 'expressive' forms of work but also by other groups, and the manual work of newspaper distribution has played a part in shaping the content and form of newspapers.
This article contributes to a broader understanding of the processes that form the media, by looking beyond the much-chronicled editorial processes and journalistic profession to better understand the history of the press.In doing so, we ask three overarching questions: How was newspaper distribution organized in Sweden during the 20th century?What conflicts and struggles played out between distribution employers and workers?How did the struggles and conflicts between this organization and the associated union affect the form and content of the newspapers being distributed?
Our analysis presents two distinct cases that demonstrate the main argument of the article: namely, that the routine distribution work of newspaper carriers and their union struggles have affected the development of newspapers in Sweden.The first of these two cases concerns the struggles over the size and weight of newspapers and the second encompasses the so-called 'war on commercials.'

Newspaper Carriers: Distribution, Infrastructure, and Media Work
With the development of the newspaper market, as newspapers reached new and larger audiences during the latter part of the 19 th century, competition between different newspapers increased.Distribution became a key component of this competition and was equally important as prizing or content: A clear advantage could be gained by getting the newspaper as quickly and as smoothly as possible to the subscribers.It was during this time period that newspaper carriers emerged as a profession. 2 In this period, the newspaper carriers in Sweden worked exclusively for one newspaper.Since larger newspapers could offer better salaries and other benefits, they were able to recruit more reliable and competent carriers, further strengthening their position in the competition between newspapers.This system of newspaper carriers evolved during the late 19 th and early 20th century; by 1905 (the year of the first unionization of newspaper carriers in Sweden), it had already grown to become a profession occupying thousands of carriers all over Sweden.The system remained intact until the 1970s, when co-distribution became the norm and carriers were generally no longer hired directly by individual newspapers but by independent distribution companies holding a monopoly in each area. 3n media studies in general and media history studies in particular, newspaper distribution-particularly the work of distributing newspapers-has not gained much attention.Distribution matters have often been treated as part of the media economy and thus discussed on an overarching and structural level while focusing on costs, market structures, and the regulation surrounding distribution. 4In a comparative study, Philip Gaunt showed how newspaper distribution developed differently in different countries for a range of historical and structural reasons, including geography, infrastructural development, and regulation. 5Thorn and Pfeil analyzed newspaper distribution in the United Kingdom; 6 within the North American context, several studies of the 'newsboys' system have been conducted.In an important work, Vincent DiGirolamo chronicled the history of the American newsboy, a key element in the street distribution of newspapers in the United States and in the formation of a mass market for journalism, and hence for the formation of a mediated public sphere.He also showed how their work is connected to the emergence of other modern infrastructures such as the railroad. 7Nevertheless, DiGirolamo's book pays little attention to the home delivery of newspapers, for which newspaper carriers were important, as they transported the newspapers from distribution centers to the individual homes of the readers.Todd Alexander Postol showed how newspaper distribution systems in the United States took a new turn in response to new competition from broadcast media during the years of the great depression.To compete with the new media, a vast system that used teenage students to distribute newspapers to individual homes was (re)invented during the 1930s. 8Direct distribution to individual homes was an important part of commercial competition: regularity and speed of distribution were essential, which also were what gave the distributors and their unions some leverage in the negotiations with the employers.Not only news production but also news distribution, is sensitive to interruptions and therefore the distribution network-relying on human labour-was key to the success of newspapers. 9Today, newspaper distribution is being reinvented again, and recent journalism studies have paid much attention to the shift from physical to digital distribution of the news. 10One consequence of this shift-albeit one that is rarely discussed in media and journalism work-is the fact that, as physical newspaper distribution decreases, newspaper carriers and the distribution networks created for newspaper circulation lose some of their significance and must be refashioned for other purposes.For example, the distribution companies and networks that were used to circulate newspapers are now used for other forms of logistics services, such as the home delivery of packages and similar services. 11rom the outset, carrying newspapers was a women's job in Sweden: Since newspaper distribution was supposed to occur in the night or early dawn, women could combine it with their responsibility for house and care work.For many working-class families, newspaper distribution became a way to increase household income and, throughout much of the 20th century, newspaper distribution remained a profession almost entirely dominated by women in Sweden.This fact makes it even more outstanding that Swedish newspapers carriers unionized as early as 1905.In many other professions dominated by women, unionization only came later.The archival material shows that the first years were marked by intense efforts to mobilize, organize, and unionize the newspaper carriers.This task was challenging since the work was highly individualized.Minutes from meetings report on efforts to organize gatherings for the newspaper carriers and bear witness to strong opposition from the newspaper industry against attempts to unionize the carriers.Producing consistency and solidarity among women workers was the first challenge in organizing newspaper carriers, and the relative success of this union can be measured by the fact that, in the 1920s and 30s, the organization had grown to become the largest female-dominated union in Sweden.
Work and labour in the media industries have been studied and theorized from a range of different perspectives.Usually, however, the kinds of work analyzed and discussed in such studies are what can be called the 'creative' forms of media work.In an influential book on the cultural industries, David Hesmondhalgh defines media work as encompassing 'symbol creation' and 'expressive' forms of work taking place within the 'cultural industries.' 12 Such a narrow conceptualization of the object of study within research on media work and production has its merits; however, it also risks limiting our understanding of the actual practices and forms of work that go into and form media products while influencing their outlook.Naturally, people working in the creative areas of media production, such as editors, journalists, and photographers, have a greater and more direct impact on the content and form of media products such as newspapers.Their decisions and the structural ramifications of their work are mirrored in the products they put out.This situation has fostered a specific form of work organization with the potential for so-called 'creative autonomy' and distinct professional identities. 13As Bill Ryan comments, this is a consequence of the specific ways in which the contradictions of capital play out in the media industries. 14In analyses of the structure of the media industry and of labour within these industries, it has also been argued that, although there is some creative and professional autonomy within media production, the distribution and circulation of media commodities are marked by severe control and rationalization.The people distributing and circulating media commodities have been perceived as lacking any agency and have not been considered to contribute in any way to the content and form of the media product as such.Moreover, also in studies that aim to broaden the understanding of what media work and creativity in the media industries are, distribution and circulation are generally overlooked.In a study, Vicki Mayer called attention to the television production workers 'below the line' who are normally not included in discussions on the creative industries.Expanding on the notion of television producers, Mayer includes assembly line workers in electronic factories in Brazil, softcore videographers, casting personnel for reality shows, and citizen volunteers on local and regional television committees (i.e.public utilities committees) and argues that their contributions to television productions are invisible and rarely valued. 15Mayer's work is an important contribution that broadens our understanding of what media work is and how creative processes in the media industries are broadly spread out among workers not involved in symbol creation or expressive practices.Nevertheless, distribution, circulation, and the forms of work associated with them are missing in Mayer's work.As we aim to show in this article, these forms of work are neither as 'controlled' nor as 'rationalized' as previous models of work in the media industries have assumed them to be; rather, they are an area of negotiation, conflict, and struggle over agency.Distribution work hence contributes to the web of practices that go into and form the end product of the media industries and, as we will show, newspaper carriers have played a role in forming and affecting the form and content of newspapers as this form of media evolved during the 20th century.
The task of newspaper carrying has been discussed to some extent in labour history 16 and ethnographic accounts; 17 discussions of work in the field of infrastructure studies also provide helpful insights for approaching the work of newspaper carriers.Newspaper carriers are part of a larger distribution system that arguably relies on several key transport infrastructures, such as roads and railroads.Within this distribution system, the manual transporting of a newspaper from a distribution center to the homes of individual subscribers is the final part of a longer chain of distribution.The physical transport work carried out by newspaper carriers can be seen as a form of infrastructural labour: Humans carrying the news to homes hence make up the human link in a system of connected infrastructures.Within the field of infrastructure studies, researchers have examined the forms of work that go into building, monitoring, and maintaining infrastructures-forms of work that are often invisible and routine, yet comprise a human component in technical and infrastructural systems, without which such systems would fail. 18his research includes studying the work that emerges within and through media infrastructures, such as Downey's study of telegraph messenger boys. 19The integration of analyses of work and labour with questions of infrastructure indicates their socio-technical character and shows that technological infrastructures rely on productive human activity.Work and labour in a modern, capitalist society always imply power, authority, and the possibility of resistance-dimensions that are crucial for understanding why and how infrastructures are realized and how they work.Newspaper carrying is not infrastructural work per se but, in a similar way, newspaper carriers are the essential human component within a distribution system that would ultimately not function without their work.

Materials
The labour, negotiations, and struggles of Swedish newspaper carriers during the 20th century are the main focus of this article.The time period under study is from 1905, when the first newspaper union was constituted, to 1995, when a restructuring of newspaper carrying occurred in Sweden in addition to the start of digital distribution. 20he main source used for this analysis is the archive of the Swedish Newspaper Carrier's Union.After starting in 1905, the union became a part of the Transport Workers' Union in 1915.The materials from the early period are somewhat scattered and include pamphlets, correspondence, annual reports, minutes from union board meetings, invitations to meetings for the members, and copies of collective agreements with employers.From the 1940s onward, the material is richer and more systematically kept; it includes documentation of all negotiations with employers and of all internal union conferences leading up to collective bargaining and negotiations.There are also numerous reports of and investigations into models for determining wages (which will be returned below) and correspondence with union members and employers.Certain specific events in the history of the union, such as strikes, are heavily documented in the material.
To contextualize and deepen our analysis, the archival material has been complemented with and related to other sources.The Newspaper Carriers' Union published three short historical accounts of their activities and of the work of newspaper carrying in general, which were respectively published in 1940 (the Newspaper Carrier's Union in Gothenburg), 1955 (the Newspaper Carrier's Union in Stockholm), and 1997 (the Swedish Transport Workers Union's 100-year jubilee).These chronicles are stored at the Swedish Labour Movement's Archive in Stockholm and are the main sources used in this article.We also use accounts published by newspaper carriers themselves (memoires, autobiographies, etc.) to obtain a richer account of the work of newspaper carrying in Sweden in the 20th century.

The Size and Weight of Newspapers
Newspapers are artefacts that are often in movement between places and from hand to hand. 21For those carrying newspapers from the printshops to the subscribers, the weight of the newspapers is naturally of crucial importance.In the early 20th century, the carriers generally had no access to wagons or bikes and normally carried the newspapers in a shoulder strap bag.The load was often around 20 kg; however, as a newspaper carrier from the early 20th century comments: If the newspaper package weighed more than 20 kg, you received extra compensation.Sometimes the load could be so heavy and big that we got double overweight [40 kg]but then you couldn't take everything with you and had to go back to the branch to get the rest. 22om the start of the newspaper carrier's union, the weight of the newspapers was a key issue when the carriers negotiated and bargained with their employers over salaries and benefits.The question recurred in negotiations with employers, and the union monitored the weight of all newspapers in Sweden (Figure 1) for information they could use in these negotiations.The problem of weight accelerated during the 20th century, as newspapers became thicker and page numbers were added.In the mid-20th century, the union struck a deal in which newspapers with more than 32 pages gave extra compensation.As a result, it was costly for the newspapers to exceed this page limit, which restricted the amount of content that could be published in a given issue.In a negotiation between the union and the employers in the 1980s, when the page limit was set to 36 pages, the employer wanted to abolish all limits on the number of pages in a newspaper and particularly wanted to publish a thicker newspaper on Sundays. 23Hence, the union's struggle to keep the weight down had a direct impact on the editorial decisions made each day within the newspaper organizations.From an editorial perspective, increasing the number of pages was often a priority, especially on weekends, when readers had more time to spend reading the newspaper.More space was needed for longer feature articles, more images, and other materials; however, negotiations with the Newspaper Carriers' Union made it more difficult to publish these kinds of materials.In a letter to the union, a newspaper carrier wrote: The working environment on Sundays has greatly deteriorated for us.The newspaper has increased the number of pages, and not just one but two appendices now accompany the newspaper.It is not unusual for the total weight of the newspaper to be around 600 g.The newspaper becomes thick and clumsy to handle.It is impossible to get it into mailboxes.When the newspapers are paged on Sundays, they become so thick that the carriers cannot get enough copies into bags and trolleys.They are forced to interrupt delivery to return to the branch both once and twice to collect more papers.Arms, shoulders, legs, and back are aching after Sunday's wear and tear.[…] The time required will of course also be longer.SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! 24 Moreover, this problem was not only framed and discussed as a working-environment issue within the union and among the newspaper carriers.Such changes in the newspaper format and design were also discussed from a 'journalistic' or 'democratic' perspective.One example concerns the newspaper carriers of Sweden's largest daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter.In 1990, its main competitor opened a new printing house, allowing that organization to include more color photography in its newspapers.To counter this new competition, Dagens Nyheter decided to split the newspaper into more parts, so that it would include not only the main newspaper and a cultural appendix but a total of five different parts.This new size was impractical for the carriers; however, they also reacted to the new format based on how it transformed the reading experience.Therefore, the union sent a letter of protest to the board of Dagens Nyheter: There has been talk of the advantage of the 'time saving and family harmony' that will result from the possibility of reading only the specific part of the newspaper that one is interested in.One doesn't 'pass by' all the subject areas like before.The reading becomes narrower and the reading time shorter.In that way, the public education that Dagens Nyheter claims to stand for is countered.As a reader, you want to be surprised.The categorization of the material and thus of the readers makes the newspaper and the reading more boring.The sports fan doesn't pass by the theater page.The cultural buff does not inform himself about finances and money.The housewife does not cast an eye over the pages on public opinion.The yuppie never sees the human-interest stories.Everyone sticks their head in the part of the newspaper that they see as their own, and the ambition of the news to give general education and public information for all breaks down. 25is statement shows that the newspaper carriers and their union did not just discuss issues related to salaries or working conditions; they also debated and took action on questions related to the content, quality, and rationale of the product they distributed.
The editorial content per se was not the only thing contributing to the increased weight of the newspapers.Secondary materials in the form of appendices and other materials were folded into the newspapers and created problems for the carriers.The design and shape of such supplements were part of the negotiations between the newspaper and the carrier's union and were repeatedly a source of disagreement and conflictparticularly when the national agreement between the parties was terminated in the early 1980s. 26There was a deadlock on this topic in the negotiations toward a new agreement in early 1982-1983, and the employers and the union representatives had a difficult time reaching a deal, as the employers rejected all demands from the union.Therefore, the union appointed a committee with the assignment to develop the union demands more fully in order to bring the employers back to the table for further negotiations.The minutes from this committee showed that added material was a key issue in these negotiations; the final document from the committee states: The committee wants the carriers to be compensated for delivering newspapers with added material, and not just for carrying out the actual paging.
They want supplements as well as brochures and shared newspaper issues (a separate main newspaper and cultural section, for example) to be governed by the agreement.
Newspapers with other material in them (product samples and other printed matter such as checkbooks, as well as appendices on stiff paper that make it difficult or delay regular delivery) can be distributed if a special agreement is reached. 27he subsequent negotiations between the union and the employers addressed the problem of the appendices, with the union demanding extra financial compensation for the carriers carrying this kind of material.The final agreement defines the different formats and sizes of appendices and groups them into different categories given their page numbers; it also defines the financial compensation given to the carrier for each format and thickness. 28Nevertheless, many of the union members were unsatisfied with this agreement.One reason was the different prices of the different types of appendices, which made it rational for a newspaper to choose the smaller (and cheaper) formats for extra materials-a finding that again points to how the distribution workers' demands had direct effects on the creative decisions made by the editorial and marketing departments of the newspapers.
The question of extra materials, supplements, and appendices was by no means solved when the collective bargaining with the employers ended in 1983.From the union's perspective, the employers showed no interest in solving the problem when it was raised by the union; on the contrary, they showed a 'cold hearted attitude.' 29This question gained more attention during the later 1980s, in part because these kinds of extra materials-especially commercial content in different forms-increased during the 1980s. 30e 'War on Commercials' Toward the end of the 1980s, the discussion on the distribution of materials other than the newspapers intensified within the union.This discussion was by no means new.Since the postwar period at least, newspaper carriers had occasionally distributed what the archival material refers to as 'circular letters' or 'fly sheets,' also known as commercial direct mail.As early as, in the 1960s, the newspaper carriers protested this form of material and demanded extra compensation in order to distribute it. 31Here, one important issue was how to define such circular letters or fly sheets-that is, what counted as this kind of material?It was not uncommon for the newspapers to attempt to define editorial products as commercial direct mail.For example, the Swedish daily Sydsvenskan wanted to start a weekly news magazine called Sydsvenskan Extra in the early 1980s.Reasonably, the union wanted this to count as ordinary newspaper distribution; however, the newspaper argued that it was a form of 'distribution of commercial content.'The point here was that the collective agreements (and hence the agreements on salaries, working hours, benefits, etc.) only applied to newspaper distribution, while the distribution of commercial content had a different agreement with a lower salary. 32n the mid-1980s, the criticism about the distribution of commercial content grew stronger within the union, probably because the amount of commercial material and semi-editorial products (e.g.weekly magazines) grew during this period.From 1984 onward, a so-called 'war on commercials' began within the union.The spark that started this 'war' in the autumn of 1984 was the fact that the two largest dailies in Sweden (Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet) started to distribute advertising supplements every day of the week, together with the newspaper.This meant extra work for the carriers, who folded the commercial supplements into the newspapers, as well as a great deal of extra weight.In this year, several spontaneous actions from the carriers were reported to the central union administration-that is, instances in which carriers refused to distribute this content.A letter from the Stockholm branch of the union summarizes the union's mood: In recent months, the union has experienced a huge storm of protest from the newspaper carriers because the number of appendices-without editorial content-has increased very significantly.[…] However, the resistance toward this form of content is very strong and, as far as the union can understand, all carriers agree that the appendices in their current quantity and design seriously complicate distribution, cause delays for the carriers, and can even be considered a work environment problem. 33e main reasons for this discontent were-as reflected in the quotation above-tied to economic compensation and work environment problems.However, some of the carriers had a more ideological resistance against distributing this kind of commercial content, along with anger toward the newspapers that labeled this commercial content as 'newspaper supplements' instead of admitting that it was commercial leaflets.In a description of the 'war on commercials' in a book published by the Transport Worker's Union, a newspaper carrier writes: It was-despite terrible inconvenience-neither the weight nor the quantity that was the worst.I can't describe how disgusting it was to stand and insert these so-called 'newspaper supplements' into the newspapers.We felt this was grossly wrong.That it went against everything that was right and proper.It was against press ethics and it was against our profession-newspaper carriers.We were not advertising distributors.We felt that the soul of the newspaper was soiled by this propaganda.All concepts of what was newspaper, advertisement, and direct mail were mixed up.And the language confusion spread.There is only one interest that gains from people losing their language and their sense of right and wrong, and that is the rulers of commercialism.Those who want to reduce man to consumer.As newspaper messengers, we felt humiliated and taken advantage of. 34 the union congress, the Stockholm branch of the union raised a motion with the title 'Against commercial content in the mass media.'In it, they argued that advertising in general increases 'egoism' in society at the expense of 'solidarity,' and that all advertising is 'disinformation.'In the 1987 negotiations for a new collective agreement between the employers and the newspaper carriers, the union had no success in restricting the phenomena while they did get some extra compensation for distributing commercial content.As a result, the union members-especially in the capital of Stockholm-considered that the union negotiators had betrayed them and let go of the problem too easily.The union club in Farsta, a suburb in southern Stockholm, sent a letter to the central union offices in November 1987, demanding that the union stand up for the decision on the union congress 'Against commercial content in the mass media': We should […] not let market forces be free, but be restrictive and be able to state our position AGAINST phenomena that clearly disadvantage our members politically, socially, and economically.We count direct advertising brochures in the daily press as such a phenomenon. 35n this 'war on commercials,' the newspaper carriers took action by not distributing the content, writing protest letters to the newspapers, demonstrating on the streets (Figure 2), and pushing the union to take up the issue of commercial distribution with the employers.Spontaneous strikes occurred and the level of conflict between the workers and employers was fierce, at least in some places. 36One of the major criticisms of the commercial content was that it undermined the credibility of the newspaper itself: This form of advertising borrows prestige from the newspaper but, after a while, the advertising rubs off on the newspaper and trust in the newspaper is damaged.Such a development is a threat to the daily press.[…] A free and serious press with a large readership is extremely important for a democratic society.Producing and selling a newspaper is a major social responsibility.[…] We feel professional pride as NEWSPAPER CARRIERS.We want to carry ethically sound and proud newspapers and not simple vessels for commercial mail. 37ter five years of intense campaigning from the union and its members, in 1989, the leaders of the newspaper industry changed their minds.The supplements were gradually abolished, and the newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet even started a public campaign against commercial direct mail, trying to steer the advertising buyers toward buying proper ads in the newspapers instead.This, described by the union at the time as a victory, for a time changed the conditions within newspaper production, but eventually, the commercial supplements returned as part of the newspapers. 38

Conclusion
This article discussed two examples of how newspaper carriers and their union affected the content and form of Swedish newspapers-both as messengers and links between readers and newspaper management and through their struggles for better working conditions and wages.Our aim in this text was not to provide a full account of the work of newspaper carriers, nor was it our objective to give an exhaustive description of their collective organization and unionization.Instead, we highlighted two specific instances in this history and analyzed them more fully in order to identify not only how newspaper carriers distributed the news, but also how they affected the content and form of newspapers.This work is a contribution to the history of the press-a history that more commonly highlights the roles of owners, policymakers, management, journalists and other creative staff, sources, and readers.The manual and 'below-the-line' work of distribution has not received much attention in previous historical accounts of the media; moreover, the relation between distribution work and the form and content of the newspaper as a media product has certainly not been acknowledged.In general, the analysis provided here can be read as an argument for widening the scope of what and whom to include when researching the history of the media.
This widening of the scope also applies to the emerging challenges of collective organizing in the contemporary delivery industry, which is increasingly built on precarious 'gig' work.The labour history of newspaper carriers can serve as a telling example of the possibilities of influencing specific working conditions, as well as-and more importantly -the broader media culture.The example especially highlights the importance of collective organizing and union work that had a direct influence on the form and content of newspapers.Similarly, collective organizing within the delivery industry can have a crucial impact on the outlook of the logistics and platform economy.

FIGURE 1 .
FIGURE 1.The average daily weight of newspapers, as mapped by the union in 1985.

FIGURE 2 .
FIGURE 2. A member of the union during a May day parade.The sign reads: 'No more direct commercial supplements in the newspapers.The newspaper carriers.'