By Michele Richinick

It’s late afternoon. Students hurry off the T after a stressful day on co-op, many rushing past the Metro and BostonNOW newspaper distributors who try to hand them copies of the papers.

Many passersbys don’t think twice about these individuals who are trying to give people pieces of free news.

But the people who do stop to grab a paper have developed relationships with the distributors, said Samuel Moran, a Boston Metro distributor at Ruggles Station.

“People only take the papers from us because we have developed customer service with them. They know us,” said Moran, who has been with the company for one year and has been stationed at different places in Boston. “We need to develop recognition in order to distribute the paper. We’re not here to push the paper on you.”

Moran said he works five days a week for a total of 30 hours a week. He covers two shifts, from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Yet he receives little recognition from the Metro headquarters, he said.

“We are here every day, in rain, snow or sleet,” Moran said. “[The Metro headquarters] don’t treat their employees right, they do me wrong.”

Metro headquarters could not be reached for comment.

Moran said he doesn’t make enough money for working daily in the cold weather. He has only received one raise in the past year, he said.

“I work to make the Metro No. 1, but I never get incentives for it,” he said. “The Metro needs to treat their employees better and let us know that they are proud for what we do for them. They need to appreciate us so we’ll be willing to do more.”

Before working as a BostonNOW distributor, Darlene Omara was a manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts in Stoughton. She plans to distribute newspapers until she finds another job, she said.

“You got to do what you got to do to put money in your pocket,” Omara said. “It’s cold standing here, but someone’s got to do it.”

To be hired as a newspaper distributor, Moran said he called the Metro and interviewed for the job. The distributors have no contact with the newspaper headquarters during their shifts because supervisors put the papers at Ruggles before the distributors arrive for work, Omara said.

Omara said she is given 800 newspapers for each four hour shift she works. Moran said he distributes about 1,000 newspapers during his morning shifts and about 900 newspapers during his afternoon and evening shifts, but he does not feel rejected when people walk past him without reaching for a Metro paper. People have the choice to take whichever paper they want, he said.

“I usually walk by [them] unless there was a good Celtics game the night before,” said Danny Kaplan, a freshman music industry major.

Other students like Deanna Belletti, a sophomore business major who prefers the Metro to BostonNOW, will take a newspaper so she can read something while riding the T.

“It doesn’t matter [if they take it or not],” Jeremy Greene, a BostonNOW distributor, said. “I get rid of my papers every day, and I’m not going to not get paid just because one person didn’t take the paper.”

As for competition, the distributors see each other as a cooperative effort rather than a challenging force. “We all work together,” Moran said. “I don’t believe in competition.”