Social changes that followed suburbanization led to a dramatic growth of coin-operated newspaper vending machines to support the emerging importance of single copy sales of newspapers.
With a flamboyant eight-month, multi-city promotion campaign USA Today drew news media and public attention to itself and to coin-operated newspaper vending machines. Beginning in September 1982, USA Today put 135,000 flashy vending boxes on American streets and in places where no one had ever put newspaper boxes before. The weekend prior to the New York City launch party, 3,000 blue and white USA Today pedestal boxes with tilted display windows were bolted to the city's sidewalks. (1) This ...