Newsstands near stations, for magazine distribution

What it does

Every month: newsstands and convenience stores within 300 m of each train and bus station in your city, checked for whether they are still open, for the magazine distributor’s route list.

In one sentence: Monthly on the 1st at 08:00, in Barcelona, find train stations, bus stations and subway stations in the area, find newsstands and convenience stores nearby, remove duplicates, then add row in Google Sheets, email the list to you and show them on a map.

Why it is useful

Magazines sell where people wait. A current list of shops near every station keeps the routes efficient.

Who it is for

Media, newsrooms & publishing. Newsrooms, broadcasters, publishers and media sales teams who need local stories, audiences and advertisers first. Every use case for media & publishing

Best use cases

• A magazine distributor
• A newspaper’s circulation team
• A snack brand selling at stations

What each run gives you

• A Google Sheet
• A map

The time it saves

Monthly on the 1st at 08:00. Doing the same work by hand takes about 60 minutes each time; it runs about 1 time a month, so it saves about 1 hours a month (an estimate). It is medium: 8 blocks.

The flow, block by block

1. On the 1st of every monthTrigger · ScheduleStarts the flow on a timetable.
2. My cityWhere · Area of interestSets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
3. StationsxMap data · Nearby placesPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
4. Newsstands near each stationxMap data · Nearby placesPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
5. Each shop onceLogic · Remove duplicatesKeeps one of each item when the same one arrives more than once, for example from two searches that overlap.
6. Add them to the route sheetApp · Google SheetsCreate, edit, and collaborate on spreadsheets online
7. Show them on a mapAction · Show on a mapShows the results as points on a map, with the area of interest.
8. Email me the resultsAction · EmailSends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.

Every block can be changed after you use the template: the city, the type of place, the score, where the results go.

Use it now

Answer a few questions, enter your work email, and it runs in your own account, kept running until you pause it. Use this template.