Newspaper racks: Where’d they all go?

By Steve Outing on Oct 22, 2008 in print

Does anyone know about current trends in newspaper racks? I ask because on Monday I was hanging out with my daughter in the impressive and recently renovated Natick Collection (a.k.a., Natick Mall) near Boston. I wanted a copy of the Boston papers, but couldn’t spot any newspaper racks.

I asked the guy stationed at the impressive information booth in the middle of the mall, who informed me that there was no place to get a newspaper inside the mall other than a CVS drug store on the far end of the bottom floor that sold them.

Hmmm. Perhaps I just haven’t been paying attention to such things. But it struck me as surprising that newspaper racks have disappeared from some shopping malls.

Is this the situation at the mall near you?

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5 Comment(s)

  1. On Oct 22, 2008, Angela ConnorNo Gravatar said:

    Interesting. Maybe they fell victim to the cutbacks. I say that somewhat jokingly and somewhat serious. I have not seen any racks near the two malls I frequent in Raleigh.

  2. On Oct 31, 2008, DC StultzNo Gravatar said:

    I like to read the local papers when I travel. Your experience is the norm now. Not only no racks in malls, but they’ve disappeared at hotels too. At least that has been my experience on trips to Boca Raton and Ft Lauderdale in the past couple months.

    Locally, I note that the racks that are still there are most frequently empty. If they were stocked at all (many aren’t), fewer papers are being placed in them.

    Let’s see…. raise the price, cut the quality of the product and then make them difficult to buy. And, the newspaper industry wonders why circulation is going down?? Give me a break.

  3. On Nov 18, 2008, SueNo Gravatar said:

    Malls have often got stricter on having newspaper racks. They don’t want the “mess” of leftover papers laying around. They also don’t consider metal newspaper racks to be attactive enough to fit in with their luxurious “lifestyle” mall settings. If a newspaper rack sells well, no newspaper company moves it or removes it unless they are asked to.

  4. On Dec 6, 2008, SuzanneNo Gravatar said:

    If a newspaper is made correctly, and with quality in mind, the product in the rack is what is to be seen, not the rack itself. We manufacture wire racks and have had a slight slow down because of the economy but do still sell plenty of them. I guess just not in the malls. . .

    Suzanne Lindgren
    Rak Systems, Inc.
    Mobile, Alabama

  5. On May 5, 2009, DanNo Gravatar said:

    We ran across the malls want us to pay a monthly fee to be there. If a newspaper starts paying for a location where would it stop? Plus, pilerage is a ongoing problem. One person will take 3 papers for everyone else workng at a store. Just not profitable anymore.

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