Nov 22nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
OOTN Revisited
The really shocking thing about this Out of Town News closing story is that you’d surely think that the combined political and financial weight of Harvard alumni would allow us to organize some kind of bailout.
It’s true that the newsstand isn’t “too big to fail” as such, but it’s certainly too close to the hearts of a large swathe of the American elite! And what’s more, bailing OOTN out would be a lot cheaper than rescuing Citigroup or General Motors.
34 Responses to “OOTN Revisited”
Register
RSSLogin
Advertisement
Visit Our Affiliated Sites
Books By Matthew Yglesias
Topic CloudView topics sorted by popularity
Abortion
Afghanistan
Basketball
Blanche Lincoln
Budget
China
climate
Congress
Crime
DC
Demographics
Economics
Economy
Energy
Environment
EU
Finance
Football
Gender
Health Care
History
Inequality
Infrastructure
Intellectual Property
International Law
International Relations
Israel
Media
Monetary Policy
National Security
NBA
Palestine
Political Reform
Public Health
Public Opinion
Race
Regulation
Sarah Palin
Sports
Stimulus
Sweden
taxes
Technology
Trade
transportation
Featured
Subscribe to the Progress Report
Contact Matthew Yglesias
Use this form to contact blog author Matthew Yglesias.
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Now, if you really wanted to say something, Matt, you could point out that Harvard has been the beneficiary of a backdoor bailout for hundreds of years, considering its tax exempt status. Not that I’m opposed to tax subsidies for universities. But I’d say after the first, oh $5 billion, the state might have some right to say “OK, beyond this you pay taxes.” Call me crazy, I’ve never believed a university needs an endowment bigger than the GDP of dozens of nations in order to flourish.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:16 pm
And if Harvard students were unionized, then trust-fund scumbags like Matthew Yglesias wouldn’t be stridently proclaiming that the auto industry should go into Chapter 11 so they could screw their unionized workers.
But Harvard students aren’t unionized, of course, so Yglesias continues daily with his cheering on the attempted union busting, just like he cheered on the Iraq war.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I once bought gay porn at Out Of Town News.
I was running for Undergraduate Council, and going through all the dorms in my district to campaign. I found three guys who were going to play a prank on their conservative roommate involving putting gay porn in all his stuff. (Or that’s what they said, for all I know they could’ve just looked at it before having a big gay threesome.) They were nervous about buying the porn, though, so they promised me their full support if I bought it for them. And I did.
Guess UC hopefuls catering to pranksters isn’t a particularly big market.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Bah. Turn it into a GameStop or other videogame store. It’ll do massive business.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Let is close. Then make an offer to lease the space again at a 75% lower rate.
Commerical real estate has just begun a free fall. The next deflationary shoe to drop. A 50% plus drop in lease rates is one of the ways the economy re adjusts.
If you ever wanted a mall of your very own then the time is here. Dozens of malls are going to close down. Sold for 10 or 20 cents on the dollar they will offer some interesting possibilities.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
I agree with Mr. Yglesias. The rent seems low, even before the reduction that is apparently being considered — and I think you could raise that amount from alumni in about 15 seconds.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm
You have a blog. Lots of people read it. Maybe you should organize some kind of campaign to save it.
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Do Harvard alumni feel more strongly about Out of Town News than Yale alumni do about Mory’s or the Yankee Doodle?
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
God. The Doodle. That’s not just a tragedy for people who went to Yale, Chris.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Send this column to your alumni listserv (if you’ve not already done so). There are several Harvard alums who have op-ed space in major papers — I’m certain, as a fellow journalist, you have their personal email addresses — why don’t you make them aware of the situation and suggest they use it anecdontally in their next columns? Start a website with a Paypal account to save OOTN and link to it on your blog.
This is called organizing. You saw it recently during the presidential campaign. You can’t just send missives out into the wilderness and hope for someone else to take up your cause. That’s lazy.
There doesn’t seem to be any indication that Matt reads these comments, but keeping this little newsstand around does seem important. Too often universities roll into neighborhoods and buy up all of the land, engendering animosity between locals and the school. So any time they can give back to their neighborhoods by investing in local businesses, they should not hesitate. It’s a way of affirming their commitment to their surrounding communities.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Jeebus –> anectdotally.
Preview, please.
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
The business model for OOTN is simply not sustainable. Why go there to buy week old foreign papers when all of it is online? People in Duluth today can get better information on the internet than people in Harvard Square can get at OOTN.
I feel nostalgic and sad about the lose of this institution, but it is the price of progress, and, in this case, OOTN existed to serve a need that is no longer needed.
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Finally, a bailout I can get behind!
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Another not so subtle story about how Matt went to Harvard. Did they sell airport books at this place?
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Why don’t wealthy Harvard alums bail it out? Seriously!
As a not-quite-yet-wealthy-enough Harvard alum, were I wealthy enough I would insist that it be renamed to “Out of Town Porn.” Holy Geez there’s a lot of porn there!
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:47 am
Let everything fail. See what happens. We’ll eat schadenfreude.
November 23rd, 2008 at 3:50 am
This is only a tragedy because Matt’s too young to remember the Tasty. It wasn’t just a place made up for Good Will Hunting, it was a community center. By 1997 the battle for the Square was already lost to the Abercrombies and the Chilises. Not that I don’t enjoy a good happy hour.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Oh and did anyone lift a finger when the Old Heidelberg went away years ago??
The Square became a mall, with official support, long ago. Spare us your crimson tears.
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Gah. . .
Make that Cambridge’s Wurst Haus. The Heidelberg, of course, was the Yalie beer hall.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Shorter MY: I went to Harvard.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
OOTN could be saved by a rounding error in the Harvard endowment.
Still think that it should be taken over by the Coop. Don’t we have some nominal control over what they do?
December 8th, 2008 at 7:15 am
To doodle or not to doodle. Among his many presidential preparations, President-elect Obama must soon decide whether to follow his eldest daughter Malia’s suggestion that the first family get a golden doodle puppy. The cross between a
March 1st, 2009 at 8:30 pm
cialis
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
March 11th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:42 am
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
xanax
March 17th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
tramadol
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:47 am
tramadol
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
April 2nd, 2009 at 6:23 am
Excellent site. It was pleasant to me.
buy cheap viagra
April 9th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
It is the coolest site,keep so! viagra
April 11th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
ynreodbzw rluigyj yivseurm okse iepwmlfka mviw rjkec