On my last day in Seattle I was lucky enough to meet with Tim Harris, the Executive Director of Real Change News. Real Change was developed originally as a street newspaper to be distributed to the community by members of the homeless population in Seattle. If you have ever read through a “street newspaper” the majority of the material is not substantial enough to entice readers to keep coming back for more. After talking with Tim I learned that Real Change does things a little differently to ensure that their readers anticipate each weekly addition and build a strong relationship with their vendor to heighten the sense of community through their readership.
When Real Change started in 1994, it was founded as a way the homeless population to sell and be apart of the process of creating the paper. The street vendors purchase the paper for 35 cents on the dollar and then resell it at $1 a paper. The entire profit that is made goes straight back to the vendor as there is no vendor fee associated with this organization. Vendors are encouraged to identify their own territory and build relationships with their clients to gain a better rapport with them.
Now many of you in the various cities you live in I am sure you have come across a street vendor selling a newspaper. I would also assume that you may have purchased that paper based on the fact that you wanted to help out the person selling it but had no intent in diving into the articles found within. Real Change found this to occur with over 60% of it's readers and wanted to change the way that individuals viewed the newspaper.
By using the newspaper as an advocacy tool, Real Change has changed the way that the city of Seattle looks at “street-newspapers”. As an organization, they have played an integral part in educating and fighting for many prevalent community issues on many different platforms in the last 5 years. They were the primary player in getting the mayor to veto the panhandling law that was enacted in the city of Seattle in April 2010. Although the city counsel had a majority of supporting votes to pass the bill, it was not enough to stop a direct veto of the bill by the mayor.
The ordinance laid down strict behavior rules for beggars such as no panhandling at ATMs or at parking stations, no blocking a person's path, or repeatedly begging after someone has already said no. A statement given by the city’s mayor Mike McGinn showed his support of the creation of strong community within Seattle:
"Adding this new law doesn't add anything towards existing laws and has the risk of essentially criminalizing being poor and that's not right."
~ Mike McGinn, Seattle City Mayor
What I learned during my conversation with Tim is that there is a need for resources in cities that allow the creation of a community voice. Real Change News accomplishes this in Seattle through their very unique model for a street newspaper to be used as a advocacy avenue. Articles are based on what the public needs to know and wants to understand about the community they are living in but would otherwise not be shown if it wasn’t for their committed readership to each weekly edition of Real Change News.
When I asked Tim if his model could be implemented in other cities, he said that he wished more cities would look at Real Change’s model to create as equally as successful papers that they have. It’s important for people to understand the audience when developing a street newspaper. There is no need to publish homeless resources as your centerfold article every week unless you are creating a street newsletter for the common homeless person who is looking for that information. Tim strongly advocates for creating articles that are intellectually stimulating and controversial to keep the readers interested in what the writers are going to report on week after week. Tim is very open to speaking with anyone interested in creating a street newspaper in their own city but warns those interested that they have to prepared to put all of their effort into creating a newspapers that can go up against most local and even national newspapers.
Check out the video below of Tim talking about his organization and start to follow this newspaper online at: http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/curr-issue-index/
When Real Change started in 1994, it was founded as a way the homeless population to sell and be apart of the process of creating the paper. The street vendors purchase the paper for 35 cents on the dollar and then resell it at $1 a paper. The entire profit that is made goes straight back to the vendor as there is no vendor fee associated with this organization. Vendors are encouraged to identify their own territory and build relationships with their clients to gain a better rapport with them.
Now many of you in the various cities you live in I am sure you have come across a street vendor selling a newspaper. I would also assume that you may have purchased that paper based on the fact that you wanted to help out the person selling it but had no intent in diving into the articles found within. Real Change found this to occur with over 60% of it's readers and wanted to change the way that individuals viewed the newspaper.
By using the newspaper as an advocacy tool, Real Change has changed the way that the city of Seattle looks at “street-newspapers”. As an organization, they have played an integral part in educating and fighting for many prevalent community issues on many different platforms in the last 5 years. They were the primary player in getting the mayor to veto the panhandling law that was enacted in the city of Seattle in April 2010. Although the city counsel had a majority of supporting votes to pass the bill, it was not enough to stop a direct veto of the bill by the mayor.
The ordinance laid down strict behavior rules for beggars such as no panhandling at ATMs or at parking stations, no blocking a person's path, or repeatedly begging after someone has already said no. A statement given by the city’s mayor Mike McGinn showed his support of the creation of strong community within Seattle:
"Adding this new law doesn't add anything towards existing laws and has the risk of essentially criminalizing being poor and that's not right."
~ Mike McGinn, Seattle City Mayor
What I learned during my conversation with Tim is that there is a need for resources in cities that allow the creation of a community voice. Real Change News accomplishes this in Seattle through their very unique model for a street newspaper to be used as a advocacy avenue. Articles are based on what the public needs to know and wants to understand about the community they are living in but would otherwise not be shown if it wasn’t for their committed readership to each weekly edition of Real Change News.
When I asked Tim if his model could be implemented in other cities, he said that he wished more cities would look at Real Change’s model to create as equally as successful papers that they have. It’s important for people to understand the audience when developing a street newspaper. There is no need to publish homeless resources as your centerfold article every week unless you are creating a street newsletter for the common homeless person who is looking for that information. Tim strongly advocates for creating articles that are intellectually stimulating and controversial to keep the readers interested in what the writers are going to report on week after week. Tim is very open to speaking with anyone interested in creating a street newspaper in their own city but warns those interested that they have to prepared to put all of their effort into creating a newspapers that can go up against most local and even national newspapers.
Check out the video below of Tim talking about his organization and start to follow this newspaper online at: http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/curr-issue-index/
Cheers,
Bryan
