“The print media are dying” is a message that those of us dinosaurs who still work in the field of print media have been hearing repeatedly (and dishearteningly) since the turn of this century. More than a decade has passed since a slew of venerable publications went online-only in response to magazine sales numbers going into free-fall, and many more joined them when COVID tanked advertising sales. But a funny thing has been happening of late: In the past year, print editions of periodicals that had gone digital began resurfacing. Life magazine, Nylon, Spin and The Onion all revived their imprints on paper in 2024. What the heck is going on?
“Digital burnout” may be a big part of the explanation. The ubiquity of social media has sucked so many of us into an endless loop of doomscrolling that meets the psychological criteria to be described as an addiction. And like any overindulgence, it makes us feel bad: Medical studies are coming out that document steep increases in stress, anxiety and negative emotions in people who spend too many hours glued to their screens.
The problem is even worse for those who are required to engage with digital technology for most of their workday. A 2023 Forbes magazine article cited Fortune 100 companies having difficulty with low productivity and employee retention, due to what Forbes described as “the ‘always-on’ mentality” – the expectation by employers that they can communicate with their workforce 24/7.
The increased acceptance of people working from home that resulted from the Covid pandemic has proven a boon in many ways, and in theory should make work/life balance easier to manage. But the downside is that people no longer have a clear geographical demarcation between when they’re “at work” and when they aren’t. That makes it even harder to unplug. New strategies are required to compartmentalize the ways in which we spend our time, if we want to stay mentally healthy.
What does it take for people to decide that they no longer want to be another in a sea of digital zombies? It might be one too many restaurant meals where everyone at the table is staring at a smartphone instead of conversing. It might be a near-collision with an oncoming car while crossing an intersection, where either the pedestrian or the driver is digitally distracted. It might be missing the priceless moment when your kid took a first step or hit a home run because you had to respond to a message from your boss right away. If you haven’t had your come-to-Gutenberg moment yet, there may be one in your near future.
Certainly, some people are beginning to push back — including the generations too young to remember a world without handheld personal computers. The cutting edge of this rebellion is to be found not in the realm of the written word, but in music listening habits. The more rapidly entertainment technology changes, the more it shoots itself in the foot, in terms of consumers becoming increasingly aware that the digital copy they purchased of a book, a song or a movie could simply go poof if there’s a change in the hardware or the software, or their device crashes, or even if a bigger corporation swallows up a smaller one and decides to discontinue part of its database. More and more folks are concluding that they want to own physical copies of their favorite media products, and not just ephemeral e-files or subscriptions to streaming services.
In the music industry, that has manifested in an increase in CD sales beginning in 2021, for the first time in nearly two decades, especially among Gen Z consumers. But the obvious big success story is the boom in interest in vinyl records, which started in 2006. Audiophiles concur that analog recordings offer a warmer, more intimate sound and a wider dynamic range than digital music. There’s also a nostalgia factor that engages young listeners as well as older ones.
It’s not merely a resurgence of collectors haunting yard sales; record companies are now issuing new LP releases on vinyl. Swifties in particular have taken the vintage technology to heart; the 2023 album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sold more than a million vinyl copies.
The Onion actually took part of its inspiration for a print revival from this phenomenon. An interview last month with The New York Times quoted Onion executive editor Jordan LaFlure as saying, “I think for the same reason that 18-year-old kids are buying Taylor Swift on vinyl, we can introduce those same kids to the notion that a print publication is a much richer way to consume media.”
Here in Ulster County, this same reasoning is fueling the hopes of Alanna Medlock, who just opened a new magazine shop called Curious on Broadway in Midtown Kingston. “There’s a whole world of people now collecting vinyl in a serious way,” Medlock notes. She’s an early disciple for the new trend to eschew an electronic document for a physical copy of a publication: an object that one can “hold and fold” in one’s hands. “I’ve loved magazines since I was a kid,” she says. “For me, magazines were a portal to a whole world of art and entertainment.”
Curious is the first retail venture for Medlock, a Chicago native who got involved in community theater early on and by age 11 was a member of the ensemble of young actors in the children’s TV show Beyond the Magic Door. She minored in Theater at the University of Pennsylvania, worked in Philadelphia theater for a while, moved to New York City to continue her stagework with such troupes as the activist International WOW Company while pursuing an MFA in Theater at Columbia University. “I always had a day job,” she notes, including proofreading for educational publishers and bookkeeping for small companies.
Medlock says she “fell in love with the Catskills” while weekending with a friend in Pine Hill, and in 2011 she moved in with a friend in Beacon. Subsequent moves brought her to Eddyville, Saugerties and finally Sawkill. She worked for a couple of years at WGXC Radio in Hudson and still hosts a monthly show, called There There. In 2021 she took a position at Upstate Films that included managing its traveling indoor/outdoor film series, the Hudson Valley Picture Show.
She left that job in January, ready to “take the leap and put my energy into my own business.” Asking herself, “What does this area need that isn’t already here?” she realized that “None of the bookstores are carrying periodicals anymore. I thought it was something people might get excited about.” And so, the concept for Curious was born.
“News, Gifts, Magazines, Sundries, Vintage” is the description of the store’s offerings displayed on the sandwich board on the sidewalk out front. Formerly a property management office, the freshly renovated space is only about 450 square feet, but it’s packed with enough quirky and fascinating merchandise to keep a browser busy for hours, and there’s a small reading lounge in the front window. Magazine and newspaper racks display both current publications and vintage copies going back many decades. There are rarities and oddities, artsy small-press issues and even items of local historical interest, such as copies of Think, IBM’s in-house magazine from the 1940s and ‘50s, when Kingston was a company town.
There’s an extensive selection of vintage glossy fashion and celebrity magazines, including many issues of Andy Warhol’s Interview. Public affairs junkies will have a field day here, catching up on the latest issues of the Atlantic, the Nation, Harper’s, the New Yorker, the New Republic, the Economist and suchlike. The intelligentsia can fill the gaps in their collections of back issues of Granta or the American Poetry Review. STEM geeks can find old copies of Scientific American and Popular Mechanics, plus journals for model railroaders and ham radio buffs.
In the rear of the shop, Chrissy Sakes of Makersville Repair Services is on hand every Thursday to offer on-site clothes mending, engraving and lamp rewiring. On the shelves you can find small collectibles, costume and handcrafted jewelry, housewares, alebrije figurines from Mexico, vintage toys, stickers and decals and much more. A good selection of mugs and other ceramic ware currently includes a full set of Portmeirion Botanic Garden teacups and saucers, if it hasn’t already been scooped up.
Considering that many people choose magazines to pass the time on long airplane flights, Medlock has thoughtfully curated an array of travel necessities such as notebooks, skin lotion, hand wipes, recyclable bamboo toothbrushes and eating utensils. Curious also stocks nostalgic brands of candy and gum, sustainably grown coffees, teas and chocolates.
In many ways the cozy little shop replicates the atmosphere of an old-fashioned newsstand and stationery store, updated to feature original notecards and other small works of paper art by local artists. The Grand Opening event for Curious on September 7 drew a respectable turnout of artsy Kingstonians, many of them connected to the mid-Hudson zine scene, and Medlock’s vision for the store is very much as a place where creatives can feel at home.
Noting that Kingston High School is only a few blocks west, she’s hoping that students with an interest in zine-making will soon discover Curious, and she plans to begin hosting workshops in that artform. “Maybe this little shop will inspire some young people to keep print publications alive for a new generation,” Medlock says.
Live readings are also in her plans, along with setting up a counter for coffee, tea, cocoa and hot cider. “I want people to think they can hang out here,” she says. “I want to make it something more than a shop: a gathering space.”
Curious is located at 352 Broadway, between Staples and Brewster Streets, up the block from the popular restaurant Sonder and just around the corner from the Kingston Standard microbrewery and Village Grocery. Current hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information and updates, visit https://curiouskingston.com and follow @curiouskingston on Instagram. Got a stash of vintage magazines or small collectibles you’d be interested in selling? E-mail Alanna Medlock at landartsnews@gmail.com.
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