Abstract: A newspaper vendor has a spring-suspended elevator lifting a vertical stack of newspapers for presentation of successive papers at a vend position for withdrawal by a customer through a vend throat. A roller arrangement automatically aligns the uppermost newspaper with the throat regardless of non-uniform paper thickness. A door, when released, provides customer access to the throat. A door release mechanism is interconnected with a coin mechanism within the vendor to permit door opening upon insertion of coins totalling or exceeding the vend price.

Abstract: A newspaper vendor provides vending of a single newspaper per vend cycle. The vendor has an enclosure holding a stack of newspapers and an elevator within the enclosure for automatically continuously lifting the stack to present a single uppermost newspaper upon the stack at a vend position. A coin mechanism is interengaged by a vend control door. The door is released by the coin mechanism to permit manual access to the uppermost newspaper for withdrawal through a vend throat which is adjustable in dimension to correspond to an average thickness of newspapers in the vendor. A blocking mechanism is responsive to withdrawal of the uppermost newspaper to block withdrawal of a subsequent newspaper through the throat during the vend cycle. A braking mechanism and pivot arrangement associated with the elevator automatically cause the uppermost newspaper to be in alignment with the vend throat regardless of skewing of the stack resulting from non-uniform thicknesses of individual newspapers.