A newspaper vending machine or newspaper rack is a vending machine

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

 designed to distribute newspapers. Newspaper vending machines are used worldwide, and they are often one of the main distribution methods for newspaper publishers.

History

The coin operated newspaper vending machine was invented in 1947 by inventor George Thiemeyer Hemmeter

George Thiemeyer Hemmeter

George Thiemeyer Hemmeter was an American inventor primarily known for inventing the Newspaper vending machine.-References:...

. Hemmeter's company, the Serven Vendor Company, was based in Berkeley, California

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

, and had been making rural mail tubes and honor racks. The new invention could be adjusted to accept coins of different denominations (depending on the cost of the paper sold). The newspaper rack was able to be used with one hand, and took around 30 seconds to dispense a paper. Two models, one with a capacity for 1250 pages of newsprint, the other 2500 pages, were brought into production initially. By 1987, over one million machines had been distributed.

Legal issues

In 1983 the city of Lakewood, Ohio

Lakewood, Ohio

Lakewood is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area, and borders the city of Cleveland. The population was 52,131 at the 2010 making it the third largest city in Cuyahoga County, behind Cleveland and Parma .Lakewood, one of Cleveland's...

 adopted an ordinance

Local ordinance

A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...

 that gave the mayor of the city complete control of where newspaper racks could be placed, and which newspapers could be placed in them. On June 17, 1988 this ordinance was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling, citing that the ordinance could potentially be used to penalize newspapers that criticize the local government.

Re-purposing

The newspaper vending machines began to lose popularity as many newspapers switched to online distribution. By 2009 various artists and inventors had begun working on re-purposing the boxes.

Criticism

Newspaper vending machines have been criticized for occasionally failing to distribute a newspaper after it has been paid for.