The rise of digital news and the pandemic have decimated a once thriving business. Survivors are pivoting to snacks and lottery.
A newsstand near Philadelphia City Hall PAUL SABLE / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
By Jacob Smollen, Billy Penn
Newsstands are slowly disappearing in Philadelphia. At the ones that remain, owners are either looking to sell, or embracing a business model that doesn’t rely on sales of newspapers and cigarettes.
The increasing dominance of digital news and lower demand for tobacco products have pummeled revenue at newsstands throughout the city, according to operators who spoke with Billy Penn. Much of the business now relies on the state lottery, snacks, and display advertising sold through the Newsstand Association of Philadelphia (NAP).
Philadelphia currently has 96 active newsstand licenses, down 41% since 2012, according to the Dept. of Licenses and Inspections. It’s not just a Philly trend, and the decline has been happening for years. Over 1,500 newsstands operated in 1950s New York; they now number closer to 300.
Atul Amin, 62, is one of the local newsstand owners looking to sell. Working in front of City Hall on a summer Wednesday afternoon, he wore a red and white t-shirt, jeans, and a small blue cloth mask on his face.
“You want to buy?” he asked, with a wink.
Multicolored scratch-off cards fluttered on the back wall of his stand, next to a collection of Cheez-it and Cheetos packs for sale. A few copies of the Philadelphia Daily News, a tabloid version of The Inquirer, lay underneath the metal counter.
When Amin bought his business in 1989 for around $35,000, the Daily News had its own newsroom — and there were many other papers next to it on the stand’s display. He’d moved to the U.S. from India a couple of years prior, seeking opportunities for a better life, he said. NAP’s website calls newsstand owners like Amin “a visible reminder of the hope in the American Dream.”
Nationwide, more than 2,500 newspapers have folded since 2005, and Amin is ready to sell.
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