Endangered: The newsstand where Microsoft was born |
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Endangered: The newsstand where Microsoft was born
Out of Town News in Harvard Square.
The newsstand that spawned the personal-computer revolution may finally be falling victim to it.
There's a fascinating story in today's Boston Globe about Out of Town News in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. The newspaper reported previously that the company running the newsstand was ending its lease, blaming the shift to online reading.
The new twist is reporter Martin Finucane's confirmation, through Paul Allen, that it's the very place the Microsoft co-founder bought that fateful edition of Popular Electronics more than three decades ago. As the legend goes, that magazine, featuring the early Altair 8800, is what convinced Allen and Bill Gates to start the company.
The Globe reports that the city is seeking a new vendor to operate a newsstand on the site, but it's not clear what will happen. The existing newsstand is significant for much more than its Microsoft connection. From the story:
The possible demise of Out of Town News, which has been in business since 1955 and is on the National Register of Historic Places, has shocked and dismayed some people. Other notable newsstand visitors have included John Kenneth Galbraith, who bought a copy of Le Monde there every day; Julia Child, who searched for obscure Italian and German cooking magazines; and Robert Frost, who stopped by to get directions to a reading.
But given the confirmation of the Microsoft connection, reporter Fincuane calls it "a painful irony" that the shift to reading on the PC is now putting the newsstand at risk.
(Photo credit: Flickr user Dan4th.)
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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