Find the widest choice of foreign press at the right kiosk
While Internet versions of many print newspapers and magazines, and various news sites, are accessible to everyone, print media still hasn’t lost its relevance. For one thing, printed editions offer far more information then their Internet versions. Besides, there is a certain pleasure about unfolding a freshly published issue and smelling that specific scent of printing ink.
Yet if it is impossible to find a desired magazine in print, Web surfing is more than appropriate in Ukraine, where very few printed editions are delivered. At the same time, practically all accessible editions are old. Fortunately, the number of foreign editions is growing in local press kiosks.
Beginning my search for the best place to buy foreign printed press in the city, I immediately decided to call up various foreign language centers, like the British Council, the French Cultural Center, the Goethe Institut, and the American Library. Wherever I called, the answer was the same – there are newspapers and magazines in the center, but they only have one copy and can be used either in the reading room or distributed for personal use for a short period of time. Another condition for reading a newspaper is registration with the center.
The disadvantage of such a service is that not all editions are delivered in a timely fashion. Some publications, such as US News, Courier International, and Le Monde, are brought once in three months. The service is good for foreign language learners, but the offered editions could hardly be considered the latest news source.
Another place upon which I set my hopes was the book market at the Petrivka metro station. However, I only found old issues of German, British, and American Vogue, old Polish catalogues on interior design, and a bilingual (Russian/English) magazine on architecture. Vendors advised me to continue my quest in the city center, which I did.
I thought about the central post office – as a hub of international communication, it should offer a wide choice of press in the most popular languages. When I asked for assistance, an elderly lady sitting at a cash desk pointed me to a lonely thin newspaper in Spanish buried under heaps of tabloid press. Two places remained – shops in the Metrohrad and Globus underground malls.
In Metrohrad, three stores offer foreign publications. In Noviy Proyizd, under the Arena shopping center, a small kiosk offers a restricted choice of newspapers, such as the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, The Times of London, Forbes, and several magazines such as Elle and Glamour.
The second kiosk, at the entrance to Bessarabskiy Market, was even worse, with only four or five foreign newspapers. The third kiosk, located in Metrohrad’s book department, proved far richer. On a wide stand, I could see the above-mentioned Herald Tribune, Financial Times, as well as NewsWeek, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, and Le Monde Diplomatique. Only after my demands, the clerk fished out a German Vogue for February, which I immediately bought, and its Italian version for December that was Hr 20 more expensive then the German issue. The other glossy magazine offered to me was a German GQ, which cost Hr 68.
The kiosk in the Globus shopping center offered the widest choice of foreign press, but still left much to be desired. Newspapers were available in all major European languages – English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, and included practically all editions sold in the above-mentioned places. Globus surely offers the largest choice of glossy editions, like Vogue, GQ, Bazaar, Officielle, Marie Claire, National Geographic, Elle, Hello, and many others. Some newspapers are absent from Globus and should be searched for among the minor kiosks. But the shopping center under Independence Square is the only place where practically all foreign editions accessible in Kyiv are available in one place. One big disadvantage is that the prices are approximately Hr 10 to Hr 20 higher than in Metrohrad. So to save money, you’d better look for some widespread editions in smaller kiosks.
Press kiosk (1 Maydan Nezalezhnosti. Globus, first line, first floor)
