Print, Dead? I Don't Think So!

Anyone who thinks all print media are yesterday's news, and that "e-zines" and websites are the only things worth reading these days, should come by Magazine World, at 1344 North Salisbury Boulevard in Salisbury (at the corner of Rt. 13 and Bridgeview Avenue, near the railroad bridge).

Magazine World is an old-fashioned, honest-to-goodness newsstand. A newsstand where you can buy every kind of magazine and newspaper, as well as the usual newsstand extras of candy, snacks, and cigarettes. The concept of a newsstand seems to be new to Salisbury, at least that was the impression my partner and I got when we were looking for retail space in which to open one. One landlord looked at us in puzzlement and said, "what do you mean, a newsstand?"

Well, we mean a store that has about 1500 periodicals. Daily newspapers from the Shore and from Philadelphia, Wilmington, New York, and Baltimore. Magazines like (deep breath...are you ready?) Advertising Age, Baseball America, Computer Shopper, DataBased Advisor, Emerge, Financial World, Gold & Treasure Hunter, Harper's & Queen, Internet World, Jazziz, Karate International, Life, Money, New Republic, Ocean Navigator, Paintball Action, Q San Francisco, Rugby World, Sailing, Theater Week, Utne Reader, Vegetarian Times, World Press Review, X-Man, Yoga Journal, and Zillions for Kids. Comics like Superman and Spider-Man. Even trading cards - baseball, football, and comic heroes.

The first sign you see when you come into Magazine World is "Browsers Welcome." My partner, Scott Herrst, has too many bad memories of newsstand owners who proclaimed "This Ain't a Library!" - with ugly hand-lettered signs or nasty verbal abuse. Well, our store ain't a library, either (and I should know - I was a librarian for 15 years), but it is a place where you're welcome to browse, look around, flip through, examine - hey, even BUY something. "The kind of store I want to go into," says Scott. That's what a newsstand IS.

In this electronic age, a newsstand may seem a risky venture. A librarian colleague of mine told me recently that in the future, not only will magazines and newspapers be history, they'll be illegal - a waste of resources when everything is available online. I beg to differ - print is alive and well and with a healthy prognosis. One of the biggest sections in our store is - you guessed it - the computer section. There are dozens of titles about the Internet alone. It seems we still need and want paper, even to help us better understand the new electronic media. Not that the Web and e-zines such as the fabulous Shore Journal aren't the greatest (honest, Charlie!). Readers of the nineties, however, seem to be integrating all types of media into the mix very nicely, thank you. You CAN curl up in bed with your computer (a laptop is perfect for this), and you CAN turn to an old-fashioned book or magazine to help you understand that computer better. A perfect example of how print and the Web are co-existing is what you are reading right now - an article in an online magazine shamelessly plugging a paper-based magazine store! It works!

Print lives! Come by and see for yourself at Magazine World, 1344 North Salisbury Boulevard. We're in the Trader Center ("where Wings to Go used to be"), at the corner of Rt. 13 and Bridgeview Avenue - right near the railroad bridge. Call us at 749-7742 or email us at magworld@shore.intercom.net.

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