On a recent visit to Kalamazoo, Michigan, I was sad to learn that an icon of Southwest Michigan letters had closed. Whenever I was up that way, I was always sure to stop in at the Michigan News Agency; it was a lovely place to pick up newspapers and stock up on magazines (it was also a nice bookstore as well).
If I were in Kalamazoo, I would always do two things: pick up some donuts at Sweetwater’s Donut Mill and visit Michigan News Agency.
So, when I knew I was going to be in Kalamazoo on other business, I planned to stop in and pick up some new magazines (I have been making an effort lately to read more magazines, and my phone less). When my son and I showed up, there was a handwritten sign that said closed, and “thanks for everything, Kalamazoo.”
I peered inside and saw that all the magazine shelves were empty, but the books were still there. A single light provided sad illumination.
When we sat down for lunch, I opened up my phone to find out what happened and was sad to learn that the owner, Dean Margaret Hauck, had died, and her business died with her, as her children weren’t interested in running a newsstand. Dean Hauck died in February 2025 at age 86, which is a ripe old age, and it was surprising to realize she ran the place practically until she died. In pictures, I recognized her; she was always the one to check me out when I bought magazines. I didn’t realize all this time that she was the owner.
Her children have plans for the storefront, but they don’t appear to involve running a newsstand.
Which is a real shame. There are very few real newsstands anymore in the Midwest. In fact, Michigan News Agency was one of the last. According to my cursory research, the last ones left are the Chicago Main Newsstands in Chicago and Evanston (which I have been to and love as well). There was a time when every town and city had a news agency. Even LaPorte, Indiana, had a news agency where you could buy newspapers from all over the world (but it closed shortly after we moved here).
It’s blindingly obvious that we currently live in troubling times, and one of the fundamental, wonderful things about America is its vibrant print media tradition. Many people don’t read print magazines today, preferring their phones over everything else, but they’re still being printed and not just about politics. There is quite literally a magazine for every interest – whether it’s tattoos, model trains, airplanes, geography, or even British country life. Newsstands are a treasure trove to discover these wonderful niche publications that are still going at it, despite all the forces against them.
I’ve recently started reading print magazines again. Like most people, I’m obsessed with my phone, but I’ve found that it’s broken my brain in ways that I’m only starting to understand. It’s destroyed my attention span when I used to love reading long-form writing in the media. So, for the last few months, I’ve been going to bookstores and newsstands and buying up stacks of magazines, and reading those instead of reading my phone. It’s really done well to repair my brain a bit, and it’s lovely to have the tactile feel of a magazine with the printed word on the page.
So, I was very excited to go up to Kalamazoo to stop by and get another stack of magazines.
Oh well.
Chicago Main Newsstand is just as close as Kalamazoo for me, so I guess I’ll just go there more now. There are also a few regular bookstores around that have decent magazine selections – like Reader’s World in Holland, Michigan. Even my local Barnes & Noble has a passable collection. But the nice thing about Newsstands, is they keep old magazines on the shelf until they sell out, so it was a good way to get, say, a stack of a month’s worth of Economist magazines at a time.
I feel sorry for Dean Hauck; her life was dedicated to her newsstand, and it’s now closed for good. Like I said recently on another matter on Ephemera, once we lose these things, we won’t get them back. People aren’t opening new newsstands these days. I can’t imagine why anyone would bother, which I suppose explains the thought process of Hauck’s heirs.
Goodbye, Michigan News Agency. Goodbye, Dean Hauck. You both will be missed dearly.