Jan Weatherbee spent almost every evening of the past 25 years in the company of newspapers, logging 200 miles a night in her Subaru wagon while encircling the ring between her home in Plymouth, the Concord Monitor’s printing press and the length of her delivery route in Meredith.

For newspaper carriers, one of the few human interactions that happen on the job unfolds at 9 p.m. daily, as drivers report for their shifts and wait, shoulder to shoulder, for their payloads to finish printing. They spend the following hours cruising through the inky darkness alone, each driver in their own car — solitude that never bothered Weatherbee. As I-93 stretched emptily before her, she would flick the dial to Coast to Coast AM with George Noory or pass the time in lighthearted conversation with her daughter.

She often wrestled exhaustion and prepared herself for the occasional nocturnal oddity: a customer answering the door in his tighty whities, or a stranger collapsed in the middle of the road that Weatherbee nearly mistook for a pile of rags.

But for months now, she’s readied herself for an occupational hazard that’s altogether unfamiliar: the day her contract would end.

“I’m a little tired of driving, I’m more than ready,” said Weatherbee, who at 77, will be retiring from the workforce on Saturday when all the Monitor’s carrier routes move to mail delivery. The shift is effectively ending some mail carrier contracts, including hers. “I’m going to kick back and enjoy what time I have left.”

The Monitor’s newspaper drivers are independent contractors responsible for regional delivery routes that include print-subscriber households and retailers that receive bundles for single-copy sales. As the Monitor shifts to mail delivery, some carriers will stay on to manage these bundles and to relay papers to post offices.

Anne Currier, the District Manager at the Monitor press, stands beside rolls of white birch paper on June 25, 2026 in Penacook. Credit: ALEX MILLER / For the Monitor

Anne Currier, the District Manager at the Monitor press, speaks with employee Donald Jenkins on the press floor on June 25, 2026 in Penacook. Credit: ALEX MILLER / For the Monitor

Delivering newspapers and promoting a free press was considered one of the U.S. Postal Service’s most important functions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Following interludes where paperboys and carriers delivered newspapers, the Monitor’s return to the mail marks a historical boomerang reflective of an industry-wide transition.

Prior to this weekend’s change, half the Monitor’s subscribers were already getting their newspapers in the mail. In Massachusetts, the Worcester Telegram and Gazette made the switch in late March, and publisher USA TODAY Co. has recently transitioned newspapers across the country to mail delivery.

With home deliveries outsourced to the U.S. Postal Service, the need to subcontract drivers was reduced. Many Monitor carriers will have their contracts severed after they complete their final run this weekend, including Weatherbee’s fellow driver Jennifer Chouinard.

Chouinard joined the Monitor in 2015 after many years as a carrier for defunct newspaper distributor G Paulsen Company. She’s delivered the Monitor to Allenstown and Pembroke’s south end, but her heaviest lift, by a mile, is in Concord proper.

With 500 customers along four distinct routes throughout the capital city, Chouinard estimates she covers 85% of Concord six nights a week, leaving her house in Epsom at 11:30 p.m. for a shift that normally lasts through 4:30 a.m. When her contract with the Monitor ends, she’ll continue working nights as a carrier for the Union Leader and caring for two of her grandchildren during the day.

“I like working nights, now it’s normal for me,” she said. “I hate driving during the day now. I want to be out on the road by myself. There are so many idiots out there, especially in the winter months.”

The end of carrier delivery would not directly affect Anne Currier, a district manager at the Monitor’s press, who is Weatherbee’s daughter. The pair began as carriers for the Laconia Citizen at about the same time, now nearly three decades ago, and have worked for the Monitor since the Citizen folded in September of 2016.

Monitor press operator Donald Jenkins explains the features of the printing press on June 25, 2026 in Penacook. Jenkins’s job will not be affected by the move to mail delivery. Credit: ALEX MILLER / For the Monitor

At the press, they see one another every day. While Weatherbee takes off on her route each evening, Currier oversees her and the other drivers. In April of last year, when Weatherbee nicked a curb and rolled over in her car while delivering papers, Currier arrived first on the scene to witness her septuagenarian mother climb out the driver’s window.

Despite the scare, delivering newspapers felt rewarding.

“We both did it together. We enjoyed seeing each other. We both learned on the same level,” Currier said. Despite her relief about her mother’s decision to retire, she said, “I’ll miss it.”

For years, the vanishing number of stops along Weatherbee’s route has demonstrated a reality buffeting the wider newspaper industry: shrinking print subscriber bases as readers move to digital subscriptions.

She estimates that, 25 years ago, her route in Meredith took her to the homes of 100 Monitor print subscribers. When her route moved to mail delivery at the beginning of the year, she was making deliveries to only eight homes.

“There were a lot of customers on each route, then it dwindled down and dwindled down and dwindled down,” she said.

Weatherbee has also been slowing down. For the past several months, she’s solely delivered bundles of papers to grocery stores and nursing homes. She remembers a time when she could pick up a bundle and haul it to her car with ease; now, to spare her back, she enlists the help of a two-wheel cart.

“It’s been a long run, it’s been a good run for me, I’ve been happy doing it. I’m going to miss it, I’ll admit I am going to miss it, but I’m also looking forward to not being out there every night,” she said.

Jan Weatherbee, a longtime delivery driver for the Monitor press, loads stacks of newspapers into the trunk of her car on June 25, 2026 in Penacook. Credit: ALEX MILLER / For the Monitor