Sign of the Times

Athens' Only Independent News Stand Closes Its Doors

originally published May 14, 2008

I get a call from Barnett’s News Stand. For the first time, I think, they’ve sold out of our magazine, and they need some more. I gladly take the call.

“Hey Ramsey, this is Midge. I hate to say this, but we’ll have to settle up soon because we’re closing our doors,” the owner explains.

“But, why?” I ask.

“People just aren’t buying magazines and newspapers like they used to,” she replies. “I want to see you though, so come on over.”

Disheartened, I hang up the phone. In the magazine business, it’s rare to receive phone calls from vendors, especially from ones who know you by name. So, I head down to the 66-year-old landmark, the only independent news stand in Athens. College Square is alive with the music and protest of the annual Human Rights Festival. I walk under the faded red awning past the outdoor news rack, faithfully stocked with the Sunday New York Times, the AJC and the Banner-Herald, and push open the heavy glass door.

Barnett’s hasn’t changed since I first discovered it 13 years ago. I smell the comforting scent of ink and paper laced with tobacco, inhale the same old dust, and glance around at familiar mastheads. I wave to Rich Whiteman, the clerk behind the counter, whose beard seems to grow longer with each passing year. On May 18, the day Barnett’s will close, Whiteman will have worked here for 20 years “on the nose,” he says.

A customer pays for a pack of cigarettes. “This place has been here my whole life. I’m sure going to miss it,” he exclaims before tipping his hat and stepping out the door. The floorboards creak beneath my feet as I browse the back corner of the store, where the racks hold literary and art magazines. I remember discovering so many publications here. Like so many windows, they offered different views of the world. I remember picking up my first copies of Mother Jones, The Sun, The Paris Review, Oxford American and Adbusters: titles I might not have discovered if I had never browsed Barnett’s - titles that don’t pop up on most Google searches. I remember digging into whatever caught my eye, sometimes sitting Indian-style on the worn brown carpet so engrossed in what I was reading. The management never bothered me nor asked if I planned to buy what I was consuming.

Owner Midge Gray walks out of the stockroom, where she’s taking final inventory of all the titles she’s stocked through the years. She smiles a defeated sort of smile. “When we first bought the place, we had one distributor in Atlanta that sold mainline titles. I had to go out and find the smaller distributors to get the more obscure magazines. Three of those distributors have gone out of business,” she explains.

Gray admits Barnett’s hasn’t physically changed much since she and her former husband bought it in 1978. She points out the cigar cases, which came with the store. A low tiled ceiling supports rickety fans and fluorescent lights, which illuminate the wood-paneled walls and shelving. “Maybe I should have changed some things,” Gray wonders aloud.

Meanwhile, the publishing industry has evolved at an incomprehensible speed. Print publications have moved online, supermarkets have expanded their newsstands, magazine distribution agencies have been consolidated, Amazon.com offers click-button shopping and big chain retailers can buy in bulk and sell printed material at a discounted rate. All of these changes have contributed to a steady decline in revenue at Barnett’s and the overall frustration of its owner, who still believes in good old-fashioned customer service.

“I remember the days when I could call a distributor directly while the customer was standing there and ask them for a particular magazine. I just can’t do that anymore. The customer wants an answer right away, and I don’t blame them,” says Gray.

Now, Gray complains about having to call a customer service center in Vancouver to order magazines as local as Georgia Trend. Since the industry’s consolidations in the 1990s, she has dealt primarily with one magazine vendor – The News Group, one of four wholesalers who now control 90 percent of the single-copy sales market in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. The consolidation of periodical distribution has been driven by large retailers, attempting to diminish costs by ordering magazines and newspapers for entire regions, rather than for specific local markets.

“We used to have a really nice selection of art magazines, but the distributors stopped carrying a lot of the smaller publications,” Gray says. “They said then what I’m saying now, 'It’s just a business decision. We can’t afford to carry those titles anymore.’”

Gray has always worked directly with local publishers. For three years, I have schlepped armloads of fresh-off-the-press magazines into Barnett’s, where Gray clears out a prime location for them on her most popular shelf.

“I think it’s important to support local businesses,” she says. She also supports her employees, which explains why customers could always expect to see familiar faces inside Barnett’s. Ever since her full-time manager and friend, Carl Smith, died of a heart attack two years ago, Gray says things just haven’t been the same. A photo of Smith hangs behind the counter, where he greeted customers for 20 years.

Downtown has also changed a lot since 1978. Before College Avenue became a one-way street, Gray recalls it was easier for customers to run into her store. She remembers a time when downtown supported four independent booksellers. “There used to be room for all of us,” she says.

However, Gray has enjoyed the pedestrian traffic and close proximity to campus. An avid sports fan, she recalls the Friday night before the first UGA football game of 1980. Herschel Walker strolled into Barnett’s and bought a bunch of comic books for his bus ride to Tennessee. “I remember how polite he was,” she says. “Dominique Wilkins came in here and sold me his All American League ring back when the price of gold climbed so high in the ‘80s. Later I sold it back to him,” she says.

Sports celebrities aside, Gray claims she’ll miss her regulars more than anything else when her store closes. “This is the end of a tradition, the end of an era,” she says. “People are upset, and I’m upset. But it’s time to make a change, and I hope people will embrace the new business that opens here.”

Gray plans to lease the space to another local entrepreneur, Diana Harbour, who will relocate her shop, Red Dress Boutique, from its current location on Baxter Street to College Avenue. Gray also plans to spend more time with her grandkids and do some volunteer work, but doesn’t rule out the chance of returning to work.

“I’m still young,” she says. “I sure am going to miss the people,” she continues. “So many folks have come in since they heard the business is closing. It makes you think, ‘Where have you been?’”

Like so many local businesses downtown, Barnett’s has been a beloved institution. But landmarks don’t always make money; people take gathering places for granted.

“I just want to thank Athens for 30 great years. I’ll miss everybody,” Gray says, her eyes welling up with tears. Before I leave, Midge hugs me goodbye. I wonder if I’ll ever feel so proud to see my magazine on a news stand again.

Ramsey Nix

Nix is the editor of Lake Oconee Living, a magazine published by Main Street Communications, an independent publisher based in Madison.