SIC 5994 News Dealers and Newsstands

SIC 5994

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in the retail sale of newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals. Home delivery of newspapers by other than printers or publishers is classified in SIC 5963: Direct Selling Establishments.

NAICS CODE(S)

451212

News Dealers and Newsstands

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Newsstands and news dealers occupy a nostalgic corner of modern urban history in the United States. A majority of such businesses are located in heavily populated areas, and are owned and operated by a single proprietor. In the mid-2000s, the Hudson News Company, and its Hudson Group, was one major exception, with hundreds of locations in airports and around the New York City area. The industry is dominated by enterprises with five or fewer employees.

Some news dealers and newsstands are seasonal and shut down in winter months. The small kiosks often lack insulation, and space heaters may not provide enough warmth during the most frigid weeks on the northeastern seaboard. Most, though, stay open throughout the year. Although most of the businesses classified in this industry are small single-proprietor establishments, larger chain and franchise operations are becoming more common. According to industry watchers, the number of street-based news dealers and newsstands has been steadily dwindling over the past several decades.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

A typical newsstand derives its profits from volume sales of newspapers and magazines. Ancillary items such as cigarettes and chewing gum also play an important part in its financial success. A typical day for a newsstand operator or dealer begins in the pre-dawn hours of the morning, when a distribution service drops off bundles of periodicals that come out on that particular day of the week. Newspaper trucks deliver the morning dailies, and may return later with an afternoon or evening edition. Each delivery requires employees to audit and verify the shipment invoice, remove the unsold prior editions from display, and either stock all of the new delivery or store part of it until needed later. Historically, Monday was the busiest day for both deliveries and sales with the arrival of weekly magazines. However, in the 1990s People magazine started delivering on Friday, and the resulting increase in sales prompted many other weekly publications to follow suit.

Morning patrons generally limited their purchase to a single newspaper or periodical. Later lunch hour and afternoon customers lingered over the magazine racks and often made impulse purchases. Many larger newsstands also acted as local bookstores, stocking popular paperbacks and sometimes even hardcover editions. A...

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