Print media is becoming increasingly hard to find in stores. According to Poynter, the newsstand industry went from a $6.8 billion industry in 2006 to $1 billion in 2022. Despite the considerable drop in sales, magazines don’t seem ready to disappear completely. In 2023, 71 new magazines were launched in the US with special-interest publications making up the lion’s share of new titles.
Sawkill resident Alana Medlock decided to accommodate this mini magazine revival with her new Kingston shop Curious on Broadway Street after noticing the magazine section at Barnes & Noble getting smaller and smaller. After visiting some independent magazine shops in New York City, she was inspired to bring the same idea to the Hudson Valley. The shop had a successful opening weekend on Saturday, September 7, many heard about the store from Instagram.
Stepping into Curious, an array of publications greet customers. Everything from Time and The Atlantic to Maggot Brain line the shelves. “I’ve always loved magazines” Medock says. “So for me, it’s nostalgia too. I was a really avid reader as a kid and pre teen. That was my big entertainment before I got into screens and everything else.”
She says she’s not the only one who feels drawn back to print. “Whenever I would mention the idea to someone, they would get really excited and say, ‘Oh, we don’t have a magazine shop. We need a magazine store. People would really enjoy this,’” she says.
Medlock set up Curious to be an unplugged destination to connect with others. Especially people who work with technology. “We are built around our smartphones now or our laptops. We do so many things through these devices,” she says. “So I think when something interrupts that people are really appreciative.”
But magazines aren’t the only print that the shop has to offer. Medlock gets local zines and newsletters in the shop for more independent sources of media. La Voz is a Spanish-language publication based out of Bard covering Hudson Valley news for the region’s large Spanish-speaking community. Outsider is a Newburgh-based zine documenting the punk scene in the city. As Outsider founder Holly Berchielli told Chronogram in a past feature, “I like to smell the ink and feel the paper. You can make notes on it. Books and magazines are real, you can hold onto them, unlike web pages.”
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Medlock has lived in the area for 13 years. Previously she worked at Upstate Films in Saugerties and Rhinebeck. “I got to know some of the local politicians and local business owners and artists, and I started to get more of an understanding of how the city functions, and the social tensions and what’s going on there,” she said. “I feel like I have a greater understanding of the variety of people that are here and the interests that there are.”
Medlock also supports local visual artists. Kingston photographer Maria Fernanda Hubeaut’s work is displayed next to the work of Saugerties native Linda Mary Montano, a pioneer in performing art. “My hope is to get more and more of those [artists] and connect with more people who are making art,” Medlock says. “So it’s good that people keep poking their heads in and saying, ‘Hey, I have a thing I make.’”
Medlock curated Curious to provide all the conveniences of a city newsstand—selling gum, candy, hand sanitizer, and even floss alongside print publications. Customers may come in to browse magazines but stay for all the thrifty and convenient finds. Displayed alongside paintings and magazines are items like mugs, sunglasses, and clothing. “I do think that’s really a common thread, through all the towns, everywhere I go, I feel that there’s people who love antiquing and love looking for or selling vintage,” Medlock says.
Medlock’s business partner, Chrissy Rossettie Sakes, runs a repair service for clothing alterations, lamp rewiring, and repairs every Thursday. Sakes also creates lamps out of unconventional objects, like one made of an old car horn and another from an old toaster.
Medlock hopes that Curious becomes more than just a shopping destination, but a community space as well. In the future, she plans to open the shop up as a small intimate events space for workshops, storytellers, and small musical acts. “If people have creative ideas of something they would like to do here, I’m definitely in a mode right now of taking suggestions. I think it’s really fun to see what people in the community actually want to do. People bring their friends and they bring their enthusiasm,” she says.
The shop is open Thursday through Monday.
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