Given that magazines and newspapers have moved their content online, one might wonder: What’s the purpose of a newsstand? Today’s version has evolved into a hub of artisanal chocolates, fashion and interior design books, letterpress cards, fancy cigars, fine stationery — and a slew of glossy indie mags you’re not likely to find online. And while there are fewer newsstands (the closing of Good News in Noe Valley in 2017, for example), newbies like Heath Newsstand and old standbys like Fog City News continue to attract print lovers. And really, where else can you find Hole + Corner propped up next to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine?
Heath Newsstand
Proving there’s no end to the ingenuity stemming from the edge-of-the-Mission compound housing the Heath Ceramics Showroom and Tartine Manufactory, this breezy space is deep in design, food and culture with titles like Apartamento, the Holborn, Nourished Journal and Slope & Swell. With city travel guides, to-go coffee and juice, Stabilo pens, Heath totes and Le Fleuriste flowers on offer, it’s a mercantile for today’s urbanite. Heath Ceramics owner Catherine Bailey says, “We want to appeal to a wide range of the Heath community and beyond. We want to be able to offer the beautiful quarterlies like Kinfolk, Cereal and Gather right alongside some of the classic magazines that we grew up with, or our parents grew up with like Sunset, Mad magazine and Popular Mechanics.”