Last stand for newsstands: Newspaper Direct

Sheltams is the first retail outlet in Los Angeles to offer NewspaperDirect, an online service that provides access to 1,133 titles in 40 languages. The Farmers Market Newsstand will print a copy of any of them, while you wait, for $5 weekdays, $7 on Sundays.

“We still are a vital purveyor of newspapers and magazines. We’re still relevant,” Sobel said. “But we need to find new ways to maintain that equilibrium. That’s why we’ve started the downloading of printed papers.”

Sobel said he had to find a way to fill the void, because prohibitive shipping costs meant he could no longer obtain many foreign and even U.S. papers.

Based on the few hours I spent hanging around Sheltams (named after Sobel’s sisters, Shelley and Tamara), the on-demand papers have a long way to go to become as popular as the Mega Millions lottery.  LA Times

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