Extra! Extra! Pike Place Market Newsstand Close after 40 years

After selling newspapers and magazines from around the world on a corner of Pike Place Market for 40 years, First and Pike News is making some news of its own.

Owner Lee Lauckhart has decided to close the landmark newsstand on Dec. 31. The stand was built of words, but the numbers just don’t add up, he says. Declining newspaper and magazine readership means declining sales. It’s that simple.

“It looks like an unbelievable success story,” Lauckhart, 78, said Friday morning. “But the majority of our customers look like me. They’re old. And people under 30 don’t read printed material. They read it on screens. It’s been a digital onslaught.”

Lauckhart used to carry 180 different newspapers, but has let that number drop to 55. He once carried 2,000 magazines, but has cut that by about 300… read more >