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That's all she wrote: Out of Town Newsstand ends Oct. 31
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Another disappointment for
Another disappointment for Harvard Square. What's next? Grolier's poetry bookshop to close to make way for a Dunkin Donuts? Brattle movie theatre to become a Santander Bank? All of the iconic fixtures going one by one... Cafe Algiers, Schoenhofs, Ferrante Dege, ...just to name a few.
Yeah it sucks
I liked Out of Town news but I hadn't been there in decades. I can't remember the last time I bought a printed publication. If you want a bottle of water or a candy bar there's still plenty of options.
Using it as a visitors center makes sense, perhaps more sense than using it as a for-profit newsstand which mostly sold connivence store type things and not papers.
Oh no
Where are we supposed to get national geographics and cigs now?
Thanks for the -30-
at the end of the story. That brings back memories from my college newspaper days.
It will be sad to see Out of Town News out of business.
Almost used it as the headline
But its place is at the end of the story (plus, wasn't sure how many people would get it).
Can you fill in
those of us who don't get it? TIA
It's old-school newspaper
It's old-school newspaper formatting/shorthand for copy editors and typesetters - "30" means "end of item" or "end of story".
Trivia
There's a mystery novel called 30 for a Harry
ETA: That's where I learned what 30 means in newspaper talk.
It'll be really weird, too.
I'm sorry to see Out of Town News go out of business, as well.
So it goes.
THere was once a time that newsstand was the only place to go for news from home when you were homesick.
I haven't gone there for my Ha'aretz fix in decades. And my hoity toity journal reading has been straight-to-kindle, save-the-trees.
If you don't partronize a place, you can't expect it to be frozen in amber.
Story
The last time there was news about the stand the owner reported he made almost all the profit on things like bottled water and snacks. Very few people are buying papers, unsurprisingly.
Things change. The important thing is what comes next which thankfully isn't going to be a ATM or Dunkins.
Yep
I used to pick up the Sunday edition of The Oregonian there, until the delivery of such became unreliable and it was often over two weeks late.
That's the other side of the equation: as news organizations moved to digital media, they began to be rather lax about maintaining their dead tree circulation beyond a core region. That's another trend that didn't help places like Out of Town which was quickly devolving into Out of Date even in the early '00s.
Out of town papers
I remember being able to get the Sunday WaPo at the BVT Barnes and Noble in the 90s. Only "national paper" I can think of that I can't actually buy nationally.
Love me the newspaper. My dad was the pressroom manager at the Burlington Free Press (worked there 40 years!), and any good BVT convenience store newsrack has the Freeps/Globe/Herald/Times/Post/Daily News on offer. It's great to grow up in a small city where you get exposure to bigger cities.
Used to buy my concert tickets there
In the pre-Internet era, if you wanted to be sure to see a band that was coming to town (after learning about the show in the ads in the Phoenix) you either stood in line at the venue, perhaps overnight, OR you could reserve tickets at Out of Town. I did that for The Police and Bob Seger back in the '80s.
...and I haven't been back since then so I'm as much to blame for their demise as anyone else.
Tickets
Out Of Town served as what we used to call a "ticket agency", an early form of today's "ticket brokers". I got tickets there in the early 70s for some great concerts. They would charge $4-$5 more than face value. It wasn't all that big a deal since tickets were $4.50-$6.50 in those days. So for $10 or so you could see all the greats and near-greats. Now tickets cost hundreds and "ticket brokers" charge thousands and thousands. It's a sad state of affairs.
Demise of Out of Town News a metaphor for media in general
The demise of Out of Town News is just another metaphor for the news in general. You don't have to be a senior citizen to recall when newspaper distribution trucks outnumbered UPS and FedEx combined in this region. "Getting on the Globe" as a truck driver was akin to winning the lottery. Those days have come and long gone as have so many media related jobs.
The media's sharp turn to the far left (only 7% of remaining journalists identify as Republican) has made newspapers (and broadcast news) too predictable and mostly meaningless, see the heavily corrected NY Times story on a new "sexual assault" accusation against Justice Kavanagh, even though the victim wasn't interviewed by the NYT and has no memory of anything like that occurring. Intentionally misleading and alienating a significant segment of the potential audience is a poor business strategy. Magazines are in even worse shape. A convenient crutch is blaming the internet, even though accessibility should have made the product more valuable, not less. The woke may mock Fox News at every opportunity but fail to reconcile that it has been the top cable news outlet for years. Clearly, many are seeking something other than the liberal tripe that dominates the media. As the saying goes, "too much of one thing is good for nothing."
Only 7%?! I guess that's
Only 7%?! I guess that's because most journalism jobs require an education! (I'm just razzin you, I love Republicans, but I couldn't resist).
How's life in the 1950s treating you?
Sounds fun, living in a time when nobody got their news from the Internet instead of paper because THE INTERNET DIDN'T EXIST THEN.
Or, Occam's Razor
The plurality of Americans who watch cable news are just straight up (expletive) intellectually vacant.
"A design proposal for the
"A design proposal for the kiosk includes ... digital rooftop signs for information 'and revenue,' according to the Historical Commission."
Wonderful, digital billboards on the focal point of Harvard Square.
Why bother having a Historical Commission? How much more inappropriate would a proposal need to be for them to reject it?
-30-
Adam, let your ink-stained-wretch flag fly.
A visitor center
(sigh)
What else can you do when you
What else can you do when you've cut down all the trees but build a tree museum?
Not much left to do but display high-tech taxidermy of what the Square was to people. The library could do an ever-changing display of (out-of-town) newspaper front pages for the current date in past years. Car Talk could have a changing exhibit, too - Car Of The Week - each week wheel in a different old junker.
Does The COOP still sell magazines?
I'll miss the hobby enthusiast magazines. Where can one get a copy of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction now, I wonder?
You know who has a ton of magazines?
Micro Center. Well-hidden.
I went in May
Didn't have the Daily Racing Form. Well, if I can't get it for the frickin' Derby, what's the point? Haven't seen Reason there on my last two visits either. Pru Barnes & Noble for magazines it is. Hell, I hope the BU B&N still has the adequate selection that their Kenmore digs had.
Unlikely. They gutted their
Unlikely. They gutted their books and magazine department when they moved.