The City That Reads has one fewer location to do so.
The Newsstand at Baltimore’s Penn Station has been remodeled and no longer features newspapers, magazines or paperback books as it did in the past.
The sign above the entrance still says: “Newsstand.” But along the wall that once held a wide selection of magazines, the store now has racks containing Doritos, Cheetos, cupcakes, Twinkies, carry-on bags and a few Baltimore-themed sweatshirts. Another wall is lined with refrigerated cases filled with bottled water, juices, soft drinks and yogurt.
A third wall has popcorn, beef jerky, potato chips, Oreos and Skittles. The front counter no longer has newspapers on a lower shelf.
About the only reading material in the store now are labels on the packages of Chex Mix and sour gummy worms.
Faber of New Jersey is the concessionaire that operates the news-less newsstand at Baltimore’s Penn Station– the eighth busiest Amtrak station in the national system with more than three million passengers a year making it a major stop along the Northeast Corridor. A clerk confirmed the change in inventory but didn’t provide an explanation.
Industry observers say what happened in Baltimore is part of a larger trend in which newsstands are changing around the country. Faber stopped selling newspapers at Philadelphia’s 30th Street train station in 2023, for example.
The experts say more and more people are getting news and other information from their smartphones and other electronic devices and that sodas and nut bars are more profitable than printed materials.
So a word of advice to travelers who still like reading the print copy of a newspaper or magazine on the train: Better get it before arriving at Penn Station.
