End of an era?

New York is one of the few cities where you will still find a newsstand; a small square “shack” filled with magazines, newspapers, candy and much more. These stands are not only part of the landscape, they bring money to the city. Travel 700 + miles to the West, and land in Chicago, and you’ll find very few of them still on street corners. Sure both are big cities, but for some reason the newsstand of old is not found where we live here in the Midwest. I am not sure why they have gone away in Chicago, but I can think of 5 of them in the area where I used to walk---compared with more than 20 just a few years ago.

Where is this all heading?

One way is the digital path. It has taken time but now you see more and more Kindles, Sony Readers, and a smattering of iPads on the train. The iPad will eventually be the one that takes over, but they are still new. What do people read on them? Newspapers, books, magazines, and other material they used to buy on the way to the train, home or just to sit down and read during lunchtime. But, imagine if you could just tuck a digital pad under your arm and take it with you wherever you went---no ink coming off in your hands and smaller than a magazine, newspaper or book. (And every magazine, book or whatever, was on this little pad.)

Not everyone will be in the market for one of these products, but I sense more people will be buying them than we might think. Here’s why. As the prices go down through “good old competition” more people will buy them; as the cost of printing text books and other materials for school go up, here’s an easy option to save money and space. Purchase the digital file, load it up, and go. You can be sure the under 25 generation will be the first to truly adapt to these new “toys.” Think of the MP3 player. This was a very expensive “toy” when it came out---Apple one-ups and comes out with the iPod. The rest is history.

It’s hard to think back only 20 years ago when the digital revolution was in its infancy. Back then we had yet to meet the Palm, Handspring, or get this, the cell phone on a mass scale. Things have certainly changed in a relatively short period of time.

So who are we rooting for? The little guy who sits in a booth in all types of weather? Or technology. It really doesn’t matter---technology will win. We’ll want to be able to download our reading material from the sky no matter where we are. Want a paper, it’s there; magazine, or book, no need to walk, just push, click, pay, read. Wow.

The photo above was taken in New York. Brightly lit, the newsstand has been responsible over the years for being the place to learn about what’s going on? It’s where newspapers flew off the stand during the life changing events, where magazines informed us about which celebrities were hot and not, and of course friendship---it’s where you knew the owner who would hand you your paper before you even asked for it. I have not been to a newsstand in years---I really hope they are around for a long time, they are part of our history I would hate to see vanish thanks to technology.

Thanks for stopping by.