 ROOTS, THE NEXT GENERATION: Portland's street paper vendors don't plan to attend a national conference of execs planning their industry's future this week in Portland.
IMAGE: renee bielawski |
Representatives from 17 "street newspapers" are converging in Portland this weekend for their biennial conference. But if you're imagining planes packed with homeless scribes landing in Portland, bringing color to local hotels and banquet halls, don't.
In the world of street newspapers, the homeless don't run the show. Instead, the North American Street Newspaper Association conference, being held this Friday, July 27, through Sunday, July 29, will be attended primarily by about 50 directors and editors paying $150 each.
"We only fly in key staff people," says NASNA president Laura Thompson Osuri. "We don't fly in vendors because of the expense."
Portland vendors of Street Roots (see "New Roots," WW, Aug. 9, 2006) are invited. But Tony Hulk, 49, doubts many of his co-workers will accept the invitation to attend the conference for free at Portland State University.
"They don't have much of a stake in the paper," says Hulk. "Many feel like independent contractors."
Another vendor, Roger Moora, 62, was confused when asked if he would attend the conference. "A conference?" he said Monday. "I haven't heard anything about it."
In 2006, Street Roots' nearly 80 vendors made up to $60 a day by collecting 70 cents of every $1 for each Street Roots they sold. But at the same time, street-paper writers and staff are becoming more professional. "Only 35 percent of our paper's content comes from [people living on] the street," says Israel Bayer, director of Portland-based Street Roots and vice chairman of NASNA.
Gone are the days when Portland's Street Roots was run by volunteers as a collective. Now, it's run as a small business.
In 2003, the paper went from monthly to bimonthly publication and hired a managing editor. Street Roots now sells 7,000 to 10,000 papers every two weeks, or 14,000 to 20,000 a month. (The numbers come from the paper and are not independently audited.) That compares with 12,000 to 14,000 papers once a month in 2003 and just 2,000 papers a month in 1998.
Street Roots' success contrasts with many street papers that are struggling or showing no growth. Former NASNA president and current board member Timothy Harris attributes that stagnation to failures to improve content or to operate as a small business.
"Novelty gets a paper off the ground," Harris says. "Then the product must evolve or die."
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street papers are coming together for a conference than it would mean that
lots of homeless people would be attending - that's a stretch. In fact,
there are homeless and formerly homeless vendors attending the conference
from other cities, including our own. But thatís beside the point.
Also it seems to be a reach to point out that only 35% of the content is
being written by actual homeless individuals when the majority of SRs is
written by poor people. We are a community newspaper doing good work in the
community ñ trying to position the story in a way that we are somehow not
paying attention to our roots is misleading. Being a reporter myself, I do
realize the importance of getting different perspectives. For example, SRs
just hired a formerly homeless vendor at a living wage + benefits and heís a
part of the conference. Why not include a quote from vendors that do feel
they are a big part of the organization.
Anyway, thanks again for the coverage and keep up the good work.
Peace,
Israel Bayer
Director
Street Roots
By the way, Real Change in Seattle is bringing seven people to the conference: one consultant, an executive director (me), a staff reporter, two formerly homeless members of our editorial committee who live in low-income housing, and two vendors.
As WW supports local music, food, and culture, so do Street Roots and other street newspapers support local social justice causes, including educating people about and ultimately ending homelessness.
Could WW operate as a collective and still publish a credible entertainment and alternative news source? I think not. In order to survive, Street Roots and other national street publications are obliged to follow the professional model of established papers like Willamette Week. If anything, WW should be applauding Street Roots' success, rather than suggesting that we have abandoned our core consituents - homeless people.
It may be useful to remind your readers that our vendors, the bulk of whom are homeless or formerly homeless, directly benefit from Street Roots' ongoing success. Improving the quality and professionalism of the paper increases readership, which, in turn, spurs sales - the entirety of which is performed by our vendors. Keep this in mind, as well. We actively invite and include vendors in every functional aspect of the newspaper. And our vendors do actively participate, to the extent that it does not impede their primary livelihood (e.g selling the paper).
Perhaps WW's editors may want to err more on the side of fairness the next time they elect to publish a less than unbiased piece on a praiseworthy local organization.