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Return of the Capitol Hill newsstand: Big Little News planned for Pike/Pine

It’s been a decade since Capitol Hill last had a newsstand. The news? Well, it’s changed a bit in the meantime but the appetite for newspapers and magazines has somehow survived the explosive growth of online information and smartphones.

CHS has learned a new project coming to Pike/Pine from some familiar faces in the neighborhood will celebrate that appetite for the printed page — and the bottleshop.

Big Little News is being planned for the retail space formerly home to vintage shop No Parking in the middle of the E Pike nightlife scene and will carry magazines, periodicals, beer, wine, champagne and other small sundries.

The project’s liquor license was approved this week but its opening remains a way off as the plan from Joey Burgess and Tracy Taylor comes together and the new shop is built.

Big Little News seems like a natural pairing for Burgess and Taylor.

Burgess is the prolific Pike/Pine entrepreneur behind Queer/Bar, Grims, The Cuff, and Cupcake Royale. Taylor, meanwhile, has been the longtime general manager at 10th Ave’s Elliott Bay Book Co.

Billy Hutchinson talked with CHS in September about his decision to shut down the shop for No Parking as he faced a positive prognosis in his recovery from cancer but was concerned about operating a store with a weakened immune system. You can still find No Parking online for your quirky vintage needs.

Meanwhile, owner John Hamel decided to close down the much loved Broadway News in the summer of 2010. “There just isn’t enough business, not enough foot traffic on north Broadway, to support this business to make it work,” Hamel told CHS that July.

Seattle also suffered a recent newsstand loss. First and Pike News was mourned when the Pike Place Market icon closed in 2019.

Big Little News will come to a Capitol Hill part of a much different culture than Broadway circa 2010 and with a media landscape that is also much changed. Some 7,357 magazine titles were published in the United States in 2020 — pretty much the same number that was available ten years ago. Newspapers haven’t fared as well with daily national circulation dropping from around 44 million ten years ago to less than 30 million today.

Along the way, the neighborhood also lost its print newspaper after out of state owners and a vertically integrated foreclosure company stripped its value over the years and eventually shut it down. So, no, you won’t be able to buy the Capitol Hill Times at Big Little News — but you can always grab a magazine and then check out CHS on your phone.

Big Little News is planned to open later this year at 1102 E Pike.

 

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6 Comments
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HTS3
HTS3
3 years ago

This is very cool. Glad to see that people are excited about retail on The Hill. Try new stuff. Some of it will work.

CHqueer
CHqueer
3 years ago

This sounds amazing. Thank you.

PSM
PSM
3 years ago

This is a great idea. I hope they also have NYT, Seattle Times, and other papers as well. I long for the days when I can settle in with a coffee (or cocktail) and read a magazine or catch up on the news in an analog way.

Patty
Patty
3 years ago

Definitely looking forward to checking this place out when they open. Thanks for the update!

NinaV
3 years ago

What a great idea! I’ve been feeling the loss of First and Pike (though I still thought of it as Read All About It).

Deb Pryor
Deb Pryor
3 years ago

Wow..off to check it out