Newsstands
facing e-competition
Posted at 10:38 p.m. PST
Sunday, January 2, 2000
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- When it comes to
delivering news from afar, few places stand on tradition
like the Harvard Out of Town News.
For 44 years, the small brick kiosk across
from Harvard University has offered news from all corners of
the globe. The landmark stand offers the Ha'aretz from Tel
Aviv and the Connacht Tribune, a weekly from western
Ireland. It has news printed in Spanish, German, French and
Japanese, and publications from countries like Greece,
Italy, Australia and Russia.
But the newsstand, and others like it, are
in jeopardy.
With international news available on the
Internet and 24-hour cable television networks,
old-fashioned newsstands are dwindling fixtures in big
cities across the country.
``I've lost 50 percent (in sales) in the
last four years,'' said Fred Cohen, the manager of the
Harvard stand. ``The Web is killing us.''
In New York City, the landmark Hotaling's
News Agency retreated this summer from its Times Square
locale of 74 years. It now shares space with a tourist
information center several blocks away.
At World News & Globe in Hollywood,
Calif., the number of out of town titles has been cut by 20
percent over the past several years to keep the business in
the black.
Cohen has seen many changes at the stand
since his brother started it in 1955. In addition to the
Internet and cable TV, Cohen said business has suffered from
a decline in the number of people who read newspapers and
from competitors such as Barnes & Noble and Borders --
superstores which now sell some of the most popular
international publications.
The biggest change to the stand came five
years ago when Cohen sold Out of Town News to New
Jersey-based Hudson News with an offer he couldn't refuse.
He stayed on as manager but had to reduce its out of town
selections and expand its non-news inventory.
``I had to bring in a soda machine,''
Cohen said. ``I never had to have that stuff. It was all
occupied with printed matter.''
Like most old-fashioned newsstands, Out of
Town News catered to international clientele and once played
a greater role in city-goers lives.
In the summer, people would gather around
the stand to listen to Red Sox games on a portable radio. On
the day Kennedy was shot, thousands gravitated to the stand
in search of the latest news.
``People were in shock, wanting to know
when other editions were coming out, was there any more
news, had we heard anything,'' Cohen said.
The stand sold more than 10,000 papers
that day, more than any single day since.
Still, the stand has not lost its appeal
for all readers.
``They said this is one of the few places
in the U.S. where you can find international newspapers,''
said Ido Swart, a recent visitor from Holland who was
looking for Telegraaph, a Dutch daily. Cohen said the paper
was sold out.
The stand's regulars hope it can survive
the threat of expanding technology.
Paul Gagnon, a 74-year-old Boston
University professor of comparative politics, has made a
weekly pilgrimage to the stand for years to pick up
L'Express, a French news magazine, and Le Figaro, a French
daily.
``Almost any person, or visitor who wants
to, can read about their own country here,'' he said. ``This
is a great spot.''
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