Street newspaper
Encyclopedia
Street newspapers are newspaper
s or magazines sold by homeless
or poor
individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues, and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities. Street papers aim to give these individuals both employment opportunities and a voice in their community. In addition to being sold by homeless individuals, many of these papers are partially produced and written by them.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries several publications by charity, religious, and labor organizations tried to draw attention to the homeless, but street newspapers only became common after the founding of New York City's Street News
in 1989. Similar papers are now published in over 30 countries, with most located in the United States and Western Europe. They are supported by governments, charities, and coalitions such as the International Network of Street Papers
and the North American Street Newspaper Association
. Although street newspapers have multiplied, many still face challenges, including funding shortages, unreliable staff and difficulty in generating interest and maintaining an audience.
Street newspapers are sold mainly by homeless individuals, but the newspapers vary in how much content is submitted by them and how much of the coverage pertains to them: while some papers are written and published mainly by homeless contributors, others have a professional staff and attempt to emulate mainstream publications. These differences have caused controversy among street newspaper publishers over what type of material should be covered and to what extent the homeless should participate in writing and production. One popular street newspaper, The Big Issue
, has been a focus of this controversy because it concentrates on attracting a large readership through coverage of mainstream issues and popular culture
, whereas other newspapers emphasize homeless advocacy and social issues and earn less of a profit.
in New York City
, newspapers sold by the poor and homeless to generate income and to bring attention to social problems date back to the late 19th century; journalism
scholar Norma Fay Green has cited The War Cry, created by the Salvation Army
in London
in 1879, as an early form of "dissident, underground, alternative publication". The War Cry was sold by Salvation Army officers and the working poor
to draw people's attention to the poor living conditions of these individuals. Another precursor to the modern street newspaper was Cincinnati's Hobo News
, which ran from 1915 to 1930Another author claims the paper had a shorter lifespan, running "from the late 1910s to the early 1920s" . and featured writing from prominent labor and social activists as well as Industrial Workers of the World
members, alongside contributions of oral history, creative writing, and artwork from hobo
es, or itinerant beggars. Most street papers published before 1970, such as The Catholic Worker (founded in 1933), were affiliated with religious organizations. Like workers' papers and other forms of alternative media
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, early street newspapers were often created because the founders believed mainstream news did not cover issues that were relevant to ordinary people.
's portrayals of the homeless. At the time, many media outlets portrayed homeless people as being all criminals and drug addicts, and suggested that homelessness was a result of laziness rather than societal or political factors. Thus, one motivation for the creation of the first street newspapers was to counter the negative coverage of homeless people that was coming from existing media.
Street News
, founded in late 1989 in New York City, is frequently cited as the first modern street newspaper. While some small papers were already being published when it was founded, Street News attracted the most attention and became the "catalyst" for many other papers. Many more street papers were launched in the early 1990s, crediting the high-profile New York paper as their inspiration, such as Spare Change News in Boston
founded in 1992. During this period, an average of five new papers were created every year. This growth has been attributed both to changing attitudes and policies towards homeless individuals and to the ease of publishing provided by desktop computers; William Shaw, the editor of the Philippines
' Jeepney, has said that government support, especially in the western world
, is influential in allowing street newspapers to thrive. After 1989, at least 100 papers sprung up in over 30 countries. By 2008, an estimated 32 million people worldwide read street newspapers, and 250,000 poor, disadvantaged, or homeless individuals sold or contributed to them.
Street papers have been started in many major cities worldwide, mainly in the United States and Western Europe
. They have especially proliferated in Germany
, which in 1999 had more street newspapers than the rest of Europe combined, and in Sweden
, where the street papers Aluma
, Situation Sthlm
and Faktum
won the 2006 grand prize award for journalism of the Swedish Publicists' Association
. Street papers have been established in some cities in Canada, Africa, South America, and Asia. Even within the United States, some street newspapers (such as Chicago
's bilingual Hasta Cuando) are published in languages other than English.
In the mid-1990s, coalitions were established to strengthen the street newspaper movement. The International Network of Street Papers (INSP)
(founded in 1994) and the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA)
(founded in 1997) aim to provide support for street papers and to "uphold ethical standards". In particular, the INSP was established to help groups that were starting new street newspapers, to bring more mainstream media attention to the street newspaper movement during the 1990s, and to support interaction and cross-talk between street paper publishers and staff from different countries. The INSP and the NASNA voted to combine their resources in 2006; they have collaborated to found the Street News Service
, a project which collects articles from member papers and archives them on the internet. National street paper coalitions have also been formed in Europe (there is a national coalition in Italy
, and the Netherlands
has the Straatmedia Groep Nederland).
The defining characteristic of a street newspaper is that it is sold by homeless or marginalized vendors. While many street newspapers aim to provide coverage of social issues and educate the public about homelessness, this goal is often secondary: many people who buy street newspapers do so to support and express solidarity with the homeless vendor, rather than to read the paper.
The precise demographics of the readership of street newspapers is unclear. A pair of 1993 surveys conducted by Chicago's StreetWise
suggested that the paper's readers at the time tended to be college-educated, with slightly over half being female, and slightly over half unmarried.
Most street newspaper vendors in the United States and United Kingdom are homeless individuals, although in several other countries (especially in Europe) papers are mainly sold by refugee
s. Nevertheless, not all vendors are homeless; some have stable housing situations but are unable to hold other jobs, while others started out homeless but were eventually able to use their income from sales to find housing. In general, the major American street newspapers do not require prospective vendors to show proof of homelessness or poverty, and they do not require vendors to retire once they find stable housing. In the United States, since 2008 there have been a growing number of vendors who are "newly needy"—only recently homeless, or with only temporary financial difficulty—as opposed to the "chronically homeless" who have traditionally made up the majority of the vendor force. These vendors are often well-educated and have extensive work experience, but lost their jobs in the 2008 financial crisis.
Street papers start in a variety of ways. Some, such as Street Sense, are begun by homeless or formerly homeless individuals, whereas others are more professional ventures. Many, particularly in the United States, receive aid from local government and charities, and coalitions such as the International Network of Street Papers and the North American Street Newspaper Association provide workshops and support for new street papers. Many develop in a bottom-up fashion, starting up through volunteer work and "newcomers to the media business" and gradually expanding to include professionals. For most papers, the majority of revenue comes from sales, donations, and government grants, while some receive advertising revenue from local businesses. There has been some disagreement among street newspaper publishers and supporters over whether papers should accept advertising, with some arguing that advertising is practical and helps support the paper, and others claiming that many kinds of advertisements are inappropriate in a paper that is mainly geared towards the poor.
Specific business models for street newspapers vary widely, ranging from vendor-managed papers that place the highest value upon homeless empowerment and involvement to highly professionalized and commercialized weeklies. Some papers (especially in Europe) operate as autonomous businesses, while others operate as parts of existing organizations or projects. There are papers that are very successful, such as the UK-based The Big Issue, which in 2001 sold nearly 300,000 copies a week and earned the equivalent of over 20 million USD
in profits, but many papers sell as few as 3,000 copies a month and barely generate a profit at all for the publishers.
's Street Sense
included a description of a prominent homeless community, an interview with a congresswoman, an editorial about the costs and benefits of taking a job, several poems about homelessness, a how-to column, and a section for recipes. A 2009 issue of the Lawrence, Kansas
-based Change of Heart
included a story on the recent bulldozing of a homeless camp, a review of a book on homelessness, a description of the Family Promise
organization for homeless support, and a list of community resources; much of this content was submitted by the homeless. The writing style is often simple and clear; social scientist Kevin Howley describes street newspapers as having a "native eloquence".
According to Howley, street newspapers are similar to citizen journalism
in that both are a response to the perceived shortcomings of the mainstream media and both encourage involvement by non-professionals. A major difference between the two, however, is that the citizen journalism movement does not necessarily advocate a particular position, whereas street newspapers openly advocate for the homeless and poor.
Unlike most street newspapers, the UK
-based The Big Issue focuses mostly on celebrity news and interviews, rather than coverage of homelessness and poverty. It is still sold by homeless vendors and uses the bulk of its proceeds to support homeless individuals and advocacy organizations for the homeless, but the paper's content is mostly written by professional staff and geared towards a broad audience. Because of its professional nature and high production values, it has been a frequent target of criticism in an ongoing debate between adherents of professional and grassroots
ideals of how street newspapers should work.
and San Francisco have responded to these criticisms by offering workshops in writing and journalism for homeless contributors. Papers such as StreetWise have in the past been criticized as "grim" and for having vendors that are too loud and intrusive. Some newspapers sell well but may not be widely read, as many people will donate to vendors without buying, or buy the newspaper and then throw it away. Howley has described readers' hesitance or unwillingness to read the papers as "compassion fatigue". On the other hand, those papers that do sell well and are widely read, such as The Big Issue, are often targets of criticism for being too "mainstream" or commercial.
Other difficulties street newspapers face include high turnover
of "transient" or unreliable staff, lack of adequate funding, lack of journalistic freedom for papers that are funded by local government, and, among some demographics, lack of interest in homeless issues. For example, journalism professor Jim Cunningham has attributed the difficulties in selling Calgary
's Calgary Street Talk to the fact that the mostly middle-class, conservative population has "not enough sensitivity to the causes of homelessness". Finally, anti-homeless legislation often targets street newspapers and vendors; for example, in New York City and Cleveland, laws have prevented vendors from selling papers on public transit or other high-traffic areas, making it difficult for the papers Street News and Homeless Grapevine
to earn revenue.
, has described the two camps as "liberal entrepreneurial" and "radical, grassroots activist".
Controversy surrounding The Big Issue, the world's most widely circulated street newspaper, is a good example of these two schools of thought.Although The Big Issue has attracted attention and controversy because of its stature, it is not the only street newspaper that follows a business-oriented model. Numerous street newspapers work in a similar way, with The Big Issue being the most well-known example of a whole category of street newspapers . The Big Issue is mostly a tabloid covering celebrity news; while it is sold by the homeless and generates a profit that is used to benefit the homeless, the content is not written by them and there is little coverage of social issues that are relevant to them. In the late 1990s when the London-based paper began making plans to enter markets in the United States, many American street newspaper publishers reacted defensively, saying they could not compete with the production values and mainstream appeal of the professionally produced The Big Issue or that The Big Issue did not do enough to provide a voice to the homeless. The reaction to The Big Issue raised what is now an ongoing conflict between commercialized, professional papers and more grassroots-style ones, with papers such as The Big Issue emulating mainstream papers and magazines in order to generate a large profit to invest in homeless issues and others focusing on political and social issues rather than on content that will generate money. Some street newspaper proponents believe that the primary aim of the papers should be to give homeless individuals a voice and to "fill the void" in mainstream media coverage, whereas others believe it should be to provide homeless individuals with jobs and an income.
Other frequent areas of disagreement include the extent that the homeless should participate in the writing and printing of street newspapers, and whether street newspapers should accept advertising to generate revenue. Kevin Howley sums up the division between different street newspaper models when he questions if it is "possible (or desirable for that matter) to publish a dissident newspaper—that is, a publication committed to progressive social change—and still attract a wide audience".
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s or magazines sold by homeless
Homelessness
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...
or poor
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
individuals and produced mainly to support these populations. Most such newspapers primarily provide coverage about homelessness and poverty-related issues, and seek to strengthen social networks within homeless communities. Street papers aim to give these individuals both employment opportunities and a voice in their community. In addition to being sold by homeless individuals, many of these papers are partially produced and written by them.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries several publications by charity, religious, and labor organizations tried to draw attention to the homeless, but street newspapers only became common after the founding of New York City's Street News
Street News
Street News is a street newspaper sold by homeless in New York City, USA. Established in 1989, it is the earliest modern street paper still extant and the beginning of the American street newspaper movement. It aimed to provide a way of self-sufficiency to the many homeless and unemployed in New York...
in 1989. Similar papers are now published in over 30 countries, with most located in the United States and Western Europe. They are supported by governments, charities, and coalitions such as the International Network of Street Papers
International Network of Street Papers
The International Network of Street Papers is an organization of street papers that provide employment opportunities, community, and a voice to homeless and other economically vulnerable people. It spans 94 papers from 36 countries, in total selling about 32 million copies each year. INSP was...
and the North American Street Newspaper Association
North American Street Newspaper Association
The North American Street Newspaper Association is an organization of street newspapers papers that provide employment opportunities, community, and a voice to homeless and other economically vulnerable people. it has 28 members in the United States and Canada with a total monthly circulation of...
. Although street newspapers have multiplied, many still face challenges, including funding shortages, unreliable staff and difficulty in generating interest and maintaining an audience.
Street newspapers are sold mainly by homeless individuals, but the newspapers vary in how much content is submitted by them and how much of the coverage pertains to them: while some papers are written and published mainly by homeless contributors, others have a professional staff and attempt to emulate mainstream publications. These differences have caused controversy among street newspaper publishers over what type of material should be covered and to what extent the homeless should participate in writing and production. One popular street newspaper, The Big Issue
The Big Issue
The Big Issue is a street newspaper published in eight countries; it is written by professional journalists and sold by homeless individuals. It was founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991...
, has been a focus of this controversy because it concentrates on attracting a large readership through coverage of mainstream issues and popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, whereas other newspapers emphasize homeless advocacy and social issues and earn less of a profit.
Historical foundations
Although the modern street newspaper began with the 1989 publication of Street NewsStreet News
Street News is a street newspaper sold by homeless in New York City, USA. Established in 1989, it is the earliest modern street paper still extant and the beginning of the American street newspaper movement. It aimed to provide a way of self-sufficiency to the many homeless and unemployed in New York...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, newspapers sold by the poor and homeless to generate income and to bring attention to social problems date back to the late 19th century; journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
scholar Norma Fay Green has cited The War Cry, created by the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1879, as an early form of "dissident, underground, alternative publication". The War Cry was sold by Salvation Army officers and the working poor
Working poor
- Definition in the United States :There are several popular definitions of "working poor" in the United States. According to the US Department of Labor, the working poor "are persons who spent at least 27 weeks [in the past year] in the labor force , but whose incomes fell below the official...
to draw people's attention to the poor living conditions of these individuals. Another precursor to the modern street newspaper was Cincinnati's Hobo News
Hobo News
Hobo News was an early 20th century newspaper for homeless migrant workers . It was published in St. Louis, Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio, by the International Brotherhood Welfare Association and its founder James Eads How...
, which ran from 1915 to 1930Another author claims the paper had a shorter lifespan, running "from the late 1910s to the early 1920s" . and featured writing from prominent labor and social activists as well as Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
members, alongside contributions of oral history, creative writing, and artwork from hobo
Hobo
A hobo is a term which is often applied to a migratory worker or homeless vagabond, often penniless. The term originated in the Western—probably Northwestern—United States during the last decade of the 19th century. Unlike 'tramps', who work only when they are forced to, and 'bums', who do not...
es, or itinerant beggars. Most street papers published before 1970, such as The Catholic Worker (founded in 1933), were affiliated with religious organizations. Like workers' papers and other forms of alternative media
Alternative media
Alternative media are media which provide alternative information to the mainstream media in a given context, whether the mainstream media are commercial, publicly supported, or government-owned...
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, early street newspapers were often created because the founders believed mainstream news did not cover issues that were relevant to ordinary people.
Modern street newspapers
Modern street newspapers began to emerge in the United States in the late 1980s in response to increasing levels of homelessness and homeless advocates' dissatisfaction with the mainstream mediaMainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
's portrayals of the homeless. At the time, many media outlets portrayed homeless people as being all criminals and drug addicts, and suggested that homelessness was a result of laziness rather than societal or political factors. Thus, one motivation for the creation of the first street newspapers was to counter the negative coverage of homeless people that was coming from existing media.
Street News
Street News
Street News is a street newspaper sold by homeless in New York City, USA. Established in 1989, it is the earliest modern street paper still extant and the beginning of the American street newspaper movement. It aimed to provide a way of self-sufficiency to the many homeless and unemployed in New York...
, founded in late 1989 in New York City, is frequently cited as the first modern street newspaper. While some small papers were already being published when it was founded, Street News attracted the most attention and became the "catalyst" for many other papers. Many more street papers were launched in the early 1990s, crediting the high-profile New York paper as their inspiration, such as Spare Change News in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
founded in 1992. During this period, an average of five new papers were created every year. This growth has been attributed both to changing attitudes and policies towards homeless individuals and to the ease of publishing provided by desktop computers; William Shaw, the editor of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
' Jeepney, has said that government support, especially in the western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, is influential in allowing street newspapers to thrive. After 1989, at least 100 papers sprung up in over 30 countries. By 2008, an estimated 32 million people worldwide read street newspapers, and 250,000 poor, disadvantaged, or homeless individuals sold or contributed to them.
Street papers have been started in many major cities worldwide, mainly in the United States and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
. They have especially proliferated in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, which in 1999 had more street newspapers than the rest of Europe combined, and in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where the street papers Aluma
Aluma (street paper)
Aluma is a street newspaper sold by the homeless in Malmö, Lund and Helsingborg, Sweden.In 2006 it was awarded the grand prize of Publicistklubben together with its sister papers Situation Sthlm and Faktum....
, Situation Sthlm
Situation Sthlm
Situation Sthlm is a street newspaper sold by homeless in Stockholm, Sweden. It was founded in 1995, and was Sweden's only street newspaper until Faktum and Aluma were founded early in the 21st century....
and Faktum
Faktum
Faktum is a street newspaper sold by homeless in Gothenburg , Sweden started in 2001. It will also be sold in Karlstad. In 2006 is was awarded the grand prize of the Swedish Publicists' Association together with sister papers Situation Sthlm and Aluma....
won the 2006 grand prize award for journalism of the Swedish Publicists' Association
Swedish Publicists' Association
The Swedish Publicists' Association is a Swedish organisation devoted to promoting freedom of the press and free speech in journalism....
. Street papers have been established in some cities in Canada, Africa, South America, and Asia. Even within the United States, some street newspapers (such as Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's bilingual Hasta Cuando) are published in languages other than English.
In the mid-1990s, coalitions were established to strengthen the street newspaper movement. The International Network of Street Papers (INSP)
International Network of Street Papers
The International Network of Street Papers is an organization of street papers that provide employment opportunities, community, and a voice to homeless and other economically vulnerable people. It spans 94 papers from 36 countries, in total selling about 32 million copies each year. INSP was...
(founded in 1994) and the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA)
North American Street Newspaper Association
The North American Street Newspaper Association is an organization of street newspapers papers that provide employment opportunities, community, and a voice to homeless and other economically vulnerable people. it has 28 members in the United States and Canada with a total monthly circulation of...
(founded in 1997) aim to provide support for street papers and to "uphold ethical standards". In particular, the INSP was established to help groups that were starting new street newspapers, to bring more mainstream media attention to the street newspaper movement during the 1990s, and to support interaction and cross-talk between street paper publishers and staff from different countries. The INSP and the NASNA voted to combine their resources in 2006; they have collaborated to found the Street News Service
Street News Service
Street News Service is a news agency for street newspapers run by the International Network of Street Papers . It carries articles, essays and news from newspapers sold and sometimes written by homeless and poor people. It helps street papers worldwide to share stories with each other with other...
, a project which collects articles from member papers and archives them on the internet. National street paper coalitions have also been formed in Europe (there is a national coalition in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
has the Straatmedia Groep Nederland).
Description
Most street newspapers have three main purposes:- To provide income and job skills to the homeless and other marginalized individuals, who act as vendors of and often contributors to the newspapers
- To provide coverage of, and to educate the general public about, issues pertaining to homelessness and poverty
- To establish social networks within homeless communities and between homeless individuals and service providers
The defining characteristic of a street newspaper is that it is sold by homeless or marginalized vendors. While many street newspapers aim to provide coverage of social issues and educate the public about homelessness, this goal is often secondary: many people who buy street newspapers do so to support and express solidarity with the homeless vendor, rather than to read the paper.
The precise demographics of the readership of street newspapers is unclear. A pair of 1993 surveys conducted by Chicago's StreetWise
StreetWise
StreetWise is a street newspaper sold by people without homes or those at-risk for homelessness in Chicago. Topics covered in the paper vary depending on what is happening in Chicago at the time...
suggested that the paper's readers at the time tended to be college-educated, with slightly over half being female, and slightly over half unmarried.
Operations and business
Most street newspapers operate by selling the papers to homeless vendors for a fraction of the retail price (usually between 10% and 50%), after which the vendors sell the papers for the retail price and retain all the proceeds from street sales.Some street newspapers, however, work differently, having vendors pay back a portion of the proceeds after selling the paper . The income vendors earn from sales is intended to help them "get back on their feet". The purpose of requiring vendors to purchase papers up front and earn back the money by selling them is to help them develop skills in financial management. Vendors for most newspapers are identifiable by badges or messenger bags. Many newspapers require that vendors sign a code of conduct or otherwise "clean up their act".Most street newspaper vendors in the United States and United Kingdom are homeless individuals, although in several other countries (especially in Europe) papers are mainly sold by refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s. Nevertheless, not all vendors are homeless; some have stable housing situations but are unable to hold other jobs, while others started out homeless but were eventually able to use their income from sales to find housing. In general, the major American street newspapers do not require prospective vendors to show proof of homelessness or poverty, and they do not require vendors to retire once they find stable housing. In the United States, since 2008 there have been a growing number of vendors who are "newly needy"—only recently homeless, or with only temporary financial difficulty—as opposed to the "chronically homeless" who have traditionally made up the majority of the vendor force. These vendors are often well-educated and have extensive work experience, but lost their jobs in the 2008 financial crisis.
Street papers start in a variety of ways. Some, such as Street Sense, are begun by homeless or formerly homeless individuals, whereas others are more professional ventures. Many, particularly in the United States, receive aid from local government and charities, and coalitions such as the International Network of Street Papers and the North American Street Newspaper Association provide workshops and support for new street papers. Many develop in a bottom-up fashion, starting up through volunteer work and "newcomers to the media business" and gradually expanding to include professionals. For most papers, the majority of revenue comes from sales, donations, and government grants, while some receive advertising revenue from local businesses. There has been some disagreement among street newspaper publishers and supporters over whether papers should accept advertising, with some arguing that advertising is practical and helps support the paper, and others claiming that many kinds of advertisements are inappropriate in a paper that is mainly geared towards the poor.
Specific business models for street newspapers vary widely, ranging from vendor-managed papers that place the highest value upon homeless empowerment and involvement to highly professionalized and commercialized weeklies. Some papers (especially in Europe) operate as autonomous businesses, while others operate as parts of existing organizations or projects. There are papers that are very successful, such as the UK-based The Big Issue, which in 2001 sold nearly 300,000 copies a week and earned the equivalent of over 20 million USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
in profits, but many papers sell as few as 3,000 copies a month and barely generate a profit at all for the publishers.
Coverage
Most street newspapers report on issues regarding homelessness and poverty, sometimes functioning as a main source of information on policy changes and other practical issues that are relevant to the homeless but may go unreported in mainstream media. Many feature contributions from the homeless and the poor in addition to articles by activists and community organizers, including profiles of individual street newspaper vendors. For example, the first edition of Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
's Street Sense
Street Sense (newspaper)
Street Sense is a Washington, D.C.-based 16-page bi-weekly street newspaper that was founded in 2003. Its mission is to raise public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty in the city and to create economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness...
included a description of a prominent homeless community, an interview with a congresswoman, an editorial about the costs and benefits of taking a job, several poems about homelessness, a how-to column, and a section for recipes. A 2009 issue of the Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
-based Change of Heart
Change of Heart (street paper)
Change of Heart is a quarterly street newspaper produced and sold in Lawrence, Kansas. It was founded by Craig Sweets in late 1996, who says the idea of starting a street newspaper was given to him by Michael Stoops, the director of the National Coalition for the Homeless...
included a story on the recent bulldozing of a homeless camp, a review of a book on homelessness, a description of the Family Promise
Family Promise
Family Promise is a pioneering non-profit organization dedicated to helping America's low-income families secure lasting independence. 163 Affiliates and 130,000 volunteers spanning 41 states provide annual assistance to over 45,000 citizens.- History :...
organization for homeless support, and a list of community resources; much of this content was submitted by the homeless. The writing style is often simple and clear; social scientist Kevin Howley describes street newspapers as having a "native eloquence".
According to Howley, street newspapers are similar to citizen journalism
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
in that both are a response to the perceived shortcomings of the mainstream media and both encourage involvement by non-professionals. A major difference between the two, however, is that the citizen journalism movement does not necessarily advocate a particular position, whereas street newspapers openly advocate for the homeless and poor.
Unlike most street newspapers, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based The Big Issue focuses mostly on celebrity news and interviews, rather than coverage of homelessness and poverty. It is still sold by homeless vendors and uses the bulk of its proceeds to support homeless individuals and advocacy organizations for the homeless, but the paper's content is mostly written by professional staff and geared towards a broad audience. Because of its professional nature and high production values, it has been a frequent target of criticism in an ongoing debate between adherents of professional and grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
ideals of how street newspapers should work.
Social benefits
In addition to providing some individuals with income and employment, street newspapers are intended to give homeless participants responsibility and independence, and to create a tight-knit homeless community. Many offer additional programs to vendors, such as job training, housing placement assistance, and referral to other direct services. Others operate as a program of a larger social services organization—for instance, Chicago's StreetWise can refer vendors to providers of "drug and alcohol treatment, high school equivalency classes, career counseling, and permanent housing". Most are engaged in some form of organizing and advocacy regarding homelessness and poverty, and many function as "watchdogs" for the local homeless communities. Howley has described street newspapers as a means of mobilizing the networks of "formal and informal relationships that exist between the homeless, the unemployed, and the working poor, and shelter managers, healthcare workers, community organizers, and others who work on their behalf".Challenges and criticisms
In the early days of street newspapers, people were often reluctant to buy from homeless vendors for fear that they were being scammed. Furthermore, many of the more activist papers fail to sell well because their writing and production are perceived to be unprofessional and lackluster. Topics covered are sometimes seen as lacking newsworthy content, and of little relevance or interest to the general public or the homeless community."[Street newspapers] have traditionally been long on personal essays and short on hard news". Organizations in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and San Francisco have responded to these criticisms by offering workshops in writing and journalism for homeless contributors. Papers such as StreetWise have in the past been criticized as "grim" and for having vendors that are too loud and intrusive. Some newspapers sell well but may not be widely read, as many people will donate to vendors without buying, or buy the newspaper and then throw it away. Howley has described readers' hesitance or unwillingness to read the papers as "compassion fatigue". On the other hand, those papers that do sell well and are widely read, such as The Big Issue, are often targets of criticism for being too "mainstream" or commercial.
Other difficulties street newspapers face include high turnover
Turnover (employment)
In a human resources context, turnover or staff turnover or labour turnover is the rate at which an employer gains and loses employees. Simple ways to describe it are "how long employees tend to stay" or "the rate of traffic through the revolving door." Turnover is measured for individual companies...
of "transient" or unreliable staff, lack of adequate funding, lack of journalistic freedom for papers that are funded by local government, and, among some demographics, lack of interest in homeless issues. For example, journalism professor Jim Cunningham has attributed the difficulties in selling Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
's Calgary Street Talk to the fact that the mostly middle-class, conservative population has "not enough sensitivity to the causes of homelessness". Finally, anti-homeless legislation often targets street newspapers and vendors; for example, in New York City and Cleveland, laws have prevented vendors from selling papers on public transit or other high-traffic areas, making it difficult for the papers Street News and Homeless Grapevine
Homeless Grapevine
The Homeless Grapevine is a street newspaper sold by homeless in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. It is published by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless . Vendors buy the paper for 25 cents per copy and sell them for 1 dollar...
to earn revenue.
Differing approaches
Among proponents and publishers of street newspapers there is disagreement over how street newspapers should be run and what their goals should be, reflecting a "clash between two philosophies for advocating social change". On one side of the debate are papers that seek to function like a business and generate a profit and a wide readership in order to benefit the homeless in a practical way; on the other are papers that seek to provide a "voice" to the homeless and poor without watering down their message for a broad readership. Timothy Harris, the director of Real ChangeReal Change
Real Change is a weekly street newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is sold by the poor, many of whom are homeless, providing them an alternative to panhandling. It is written and produced, however, by professional staff, and covers mainstream news as well as homelessness issues...
, has described the two camps as "liberal entrepreneurial" and "radical, grassroots activist".
Controversy surrounding The Big Issue, the world's most widely circulated street newspaper, is a good example of these two schools of thought.Although The Big Issue has attracted attention and controversy because of its stature, it is not the only street newspaper that follows a business-oriented model. Numerous street newspapers work in a similar way, with The Big Issue being the most well-known example of a whole category of street newspapers . The Big Issue is mostly a tabloid covering celebrity news; while it is sold by the homeless and generates a profit that is used to benefit the homeless, the content is not written by them and there is little coverage of social issues that are relevant to them. In the late 1990s when the London-based paper began making plans to enter markets in the United States, many American street newspaper publishers reacted defensively, saying they could not compete with the production values and mainstream appeal of the professionally produced The Big Issue or that The Big Issue did not do enough to provide a voice to the homeless. The reaction to The Big Issue raised what is now an ongoing conflict between commercialized, professional papers and more grassroots-style ones, with papers such as The Big Issue emulating mainstream papers and magazines in order to generate a large profit to invest in homeless issues and others focusing on political and social issues rather than on content that will generate money. Some street newspaper proponents believe that the primary aim of the papers should be to give homeless individuals a voice and to "fill the void" in mainstream media coverage, whereas others believe it should be to provide homeless individuals with jobs and an income.
Other frequent areas of disagreement include the extent that the homeless should participate in the writing and printing of street newspapers, and whether street newspapers should accept advertising to generate revenue. Kevin Howley sums up the division between different street newspaper models when he questions if it is "possible (or desirable for that matter) to publish a dissident newspaper—that is, a publication committed to progressive social change—and still attract a wide audience".
External links
- Street News Service, aggregator of articles from street newspapers
- International Network of Street Papers
- North American Street Newspaper Association
- Street Paper Focus Group at the University of WashingtonUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...