In with the New? by CoreyBlack
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Description
I can't tell if this is cutting edge marketing brilliance, or the dumbest thing I've ever seen. When I came out of a train station recently, I was greeted by the usual row of newspaper boxes. Also, as usual, the perennial rival Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune were standing toe to toe at the front of the line. What was unusual, was that the Sun-Times had a big sign attached to the top of the box that screamed: "NO QUARTERS? NO PROBLEM! WE NOW TAKE CREDIT CARDS!" This gave me pause. I wondered if the average addicted- to- plastic American would really pay XX % interest and a processing fee for a 75 cent newspaper they would read once and then throw in the trash? I decided I wasn't sure. I certainly wouldn't, but long ago gave up on predicting the depths of folly my fellow countrymen will let themselves succumb to. Again, I briefly pondered if this was obscure marketing genius, or a cry for help? Considering the present state of print media, I would image it's probably the later. I also suspect that this is a moot point anyway, as most people I see entering or exiting train stations these days walk right by the frequently empty newspaper boxes as they stare obliviously at their electronic gadgets, and somehow manage to avoid falling into open manholes.
Photographed on the Lombard Street side of the Austin Avenue Blue Line train station in Oak Park,Illinois, on November 30, 2012.
Comments (10)
sandra46
FANTABULOUS CAPTURE!
flavia49
wonderful image
auntietk
I wouldn't pay to read a newspaper at all, so I'm no judge. However, I'm perfectly willing to charge 99 cents plus tax to my credit card for Angry Birds or Plants vs. Zombies for my iPhone! LOL! I didn't used to be this shallow, but I must admit, it's kind of relaxing. :P
blinkings
LOL you know...I would and have! I usually use coins, but for that one time when I don't have any the CC slot is very handy. I use the feature mostly for things like car parking. I get my papers free at work and then I read them again online so I don't ever need to by them. Happy new year Corey. Andrew. PS now something I WOULDN'T waste my money on is Angry Birds!
kgb224
Much easier for me to read the newspapers online. The free ones though. Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
bmac62
Brilliant. Meeting a need. I rarely carry coins anymore. I don't use print media much anymore but there is a place for it in my life when I am traveling...that could be on a 3 hour flight, or a long wait in an airport or riding on a train. There is something cosy about having a paper or a magazine to snuggle up with in/on any of those places or conveyances. And you can always wrap a fish up in it, right? lol.
Chipka
Yep! Of course these newspaper...um...machines are probably intended for people who don't ride public transportation, since anyone who rides the CTA can tell you that the best place to score a free newspaper is on the train itself, since there are more newspapers there than passengers. I nearly always get my daily news off of the seat next to me! And after working in the field I'm working in (again) I can say that there's no end to what people will use their credit cards for! This is a brilliant shot...oddly futuristic. I almost thought that it was a newspaper transmitter of sorts. You slot your card (which of course contains ALL of your personal information, and you pay a news fee) and the newspaper box beams a copy of the newspaper in question directly into your iPhone, with customized content. And then I realized that the world I live in is a wee bit more interesting than this world, and was thus, woefully disappointed by the fact that we don't have electronic news-nodes standing around like R2D2's more angular, graffitti-etched cousins!) This is well seen, and the commentary is spot on. I suspect that you've snapped a photograph of a sympom of something. It's kinda clever though, in a useless sort of way. But isn't so much of Chicago like that? This is a great, quite telling shot.
beachzz
Plastic fantastic for sure!! Guess next will be the soda machines taking credit cards. I still take the local paper (we call it the Sub-Standard) just because of that old coffee and newspaper addiction I have!
durleybeachbum
Scary! I cannot imgine having time to read a daily paper. I rely on the BBC for news as I can knit/draw/groom dogs at the same time. A really interesting object and narrative, and revealing comments. Btw I love Angry birds also because I can do it as well as listening...must investigate plants v zombies!
whaleman
I once enjoyed reading the Edmonton Journal but that has changed because it is now written by people who cannot write, edited by people who cannot edit, and is laid out by people who throw paragraphs around and lose them like badmington birdies! Other papers seem to have most of their stories created by QMI (Quebec Media Corp) for a national audience but these are replete with the typical errors that pop up from a French writer less-fluent in English and totally unfamiliar with western Canada, much like what would happen if I wrote from Alberta, in French, for a Quebec audience. So now I am down to reading one of the free daily papers that are worth exactly that, while they try to hang on to the business of selling a daily here. I also do not subscribe to cable TV because I would spend too much time watching it and it is these things all together which enable me to operate the Free Photography Initiative and have fun with the few years I may have left. For news, I get CBC radio or over the air CBC TV.