Type | Twice-monthly street publication |
---|---|
Format | Newspaper |
Founder(s) | Steven Samara, Tasha French, Tom Wills, and Will Connelly |
Editor | Amanda Haggard, Linda Bailey |
Founded | 2007 |
Political alignment | Homeless advocacy |
Circulation | 20,000 monthly |
Website | |
The Contributor is a bi-weekly street newspaper published in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The publication's content focuses on primarily social justice issues as they are framed by politics, music, art, culture, sports, homelessness and poverty. It is written by local journalists as well as people experiencing homelessness or working within the homeless community. The magazine's editors are Amanda Haggard and Linda Bailey.
As an organization, The Contributor is a nonprofit social enterprise providing economic opportunity with dignity to people experiencing or who have experienced homelessness and poverty. Every two weeks, a new issue of The Contributor is published and sold by over 150 vendors in Middle Tennessee. By signing a contract and attending training, Contributor vendors become independent micro-business men and women who invest in their own micro-businesses by purchasing papers for $.50 and selling them for $2.00 plus tips to the public. They become Contributors to the economy, to their own quality of life, and to the community. The organization's executive director is Will Connelly.
The Contributor was established as a newspaper in 2007 by a core group of volunteers. The first issue was published in November of that year and had a circulation of about 800 copies. The paper publishes consistently on a twice monthly basis and expanded its circulation and vendor network to become one of the highest-circulating street newspaper of its kind in North America [1] [2] [3] [4]
In 2010, The Contributor received 501(c)(3) status, becoming an independent non-profit organization. One of the founders of The Contributor, Tasha French, received the Tennessee Titans Community Quarterback award for their volunteer efforts with the paper. [5] The award came with a $10,000 grant.
Since 2009, more than 3,200 different vendors have purchased $2,300,000 worth of The Contributor and sold over 6 million copies, generating over $15,000,000 in legitimate income for themselves. With verified paper purchases, income can be extrapolated to apply for subsidized or traditional housing. As a result, over 70% of the vendors who have vended with us for six months or more have obtained housing. The Contributor is one of many street publications in the United States. Others include Real Change in Seattle, Washington and Spare Change News in Boston, Massachusetts. Many of these vendors have moved onto other more traditional employment.
The Contributor is a member of the North American Street Newspaper Association and the International Network of Street Papers.
The Tennessean is a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky. It is owned by Gannett, which also owns several smaller community newspapers in Middle Tennessee, including The Dickson Herald, the Gallatin News-Examiner, the Hendersonville Star-News, the Fairview Observer, and the Ashland City Times. Its circulation area overlaps those of the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle and The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, two other independent Gannett papers. The company publishes several specialty publications, including Nashville Lifestyles magazine.
The Windsor Star is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays.
The Big Issue is a United Kingdom-based street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. The Big Issue is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or individuals at risk of homelessness, the opportunity to earn a legitimate income, thereby helping them to reintegrate into mainstream society. It is the world's most widely circulated street newspaper.
The Nashville Banner is a defunct daily newspaper of Nashville, Tennessee, United States, which published from April 10, 1876 until February 20, 1998. The Banner was published each Monday through Friday afternoon, and at one time carried as many as five editions.
Real Change is a weekly progressive street newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, USA written by professional staff and sold by self-employed vendors, many of whom are homeless. The paper provides them with an alternative to panhandling and covers a variety of social justice issues, including homelessness and poverty. It became weekly in 2005, making it the second American street newspaper ever to be published weekly. Real Change is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with an annual budget of $950,000.
Street newspapers are newspapers 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.
StreetWise is a street magazine sold by people without homes or those at-risk for homelessness in Chicago. Topics covered depend on what is happening in Chicago at the time.
Spare Change News (SCN) is a street newspaper founded in 1992 in Boston, Massachusetts for the Greater Boston Area and published out of the editorial offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts through the efforts of the Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP), a grassroots organization created to help end homelessness.
The Berkeley Barb was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war movement and Civil Rights Movement, as well as the social changes advocated by youth culture.
The Street Sheet is a street newspaper published and sold in San Francisco, California which focuses on the problems of homeless people in the city, and on issues of poverty and housing. Founded in 1989, the Street Sheet is second only to the Street News as the oldest extant street newspaper in the United States and currently has the largest circulation of a street newspaper with 32,000 papers distributed monthly.
Street Sense is a weekly street newspaper sold by self-employed homeless distributors ("vendors") on the streets of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It is published by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Street Sense Media, which also produces documentary filmmaking, photography, theatre, illustration and poetry. The organization says this media, most of which is created by homeless and formerly homeless people, is designed to break down stereotypes and educate the community.
Street Roots is a Portland, Oregon, United States based homeless advocacy group and a weekly alternative newspaper that covers homeless issues. The newsprint is sold by and for the homeless in Portland. The paper is published every week and sold through vendors who are currently or formerly homeless. The paper's editorial position is homeless advocacy. Vendors purchase the paper for 25 cents and sell them for $1 and keep the difference of 75 cents. The paper features alternative news, interviews, and poetry written by local journalists as well as the homeless and those who work with them.
Street News was a street newspaper sold by homeless people in New York City. Established in 1989, it was founded and launched by Hutchinson Persons and Wendy Oxenhorn, this was the starting of the American street newspaper movement, and provided a way of self-sufficiency to the many homeless and unemployed people in New York, starting at the price of $1 of which 25 cents was used to maintain the business and 75 cents was the profit for the vendors.
Das Megaphon is a street newspaper sold by homeless in Graz and other cities in Styria, Austria. It was started in October 1995 and is run by Catholic charity Caritas. The paper is published monthly with a circulation of about 13,000 copies. It is sold mostly by Nigerian and Liberian male refugees. Megaphon was one of the street papers initiating the Homeless World Cup in 2001 and hosted the first cup in 2003.
The Homeless Grapevine was a street newspaper sold by homeless in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was published by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) from 1992 to 2009. Vendors bought the paper for 25 cents per copy and sell them for 1 dollar. The papers attempted to be a voice for the homeless and content was entirely dedicated to homeless issues, much of it written by current or former homeless. It was a monthly magazine of 16 pages and as of 2004 had a circulation of 5,000 copies sold by 15–20 vendors. Sellers were often at The West Side Market, Public Square, E. 9th St., East 12th and Coventry.
Word On The Street was a street newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Bridge is an American street newspaper that aims to give people who are currently or formerly homeless an opportunity for self-expression and sustainable income. The Bridge trains and certifies people with experiences of homelessness to be independently contracted vendors of the paper. They purchase each paper for 25 cents and sell it on the street for one dollar, keeping 100% of the profit.
Columbus, the capital city of Ohio, has a history of social services to provide for low- and no-income residents. The city has many neighborhoods below the poverty line, and has experienced a rise in homelessness in recent decades. Social services include cash- and housing-related assistance, case management, treatment for mental health and substance abuse, and legal and budget/credit assistance.
Street Spirit is a monthly newspaper based in the San Francisco Bay Area, focusing primarily on issues related to homelessness and poverty. Established in 1995 by the American Friends Service Committee in Oakland, California, the newspaper aims to provide coverage of issues affecting homeless and low-income communities.