NASNA Membership

Just a reminder that membership packets are due Monday May 19. Please send them to

Andy Freeze
117 E. 12th St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Thank you

Streetvibes Sales up 85% compared to 2007

For immediate release

May 1, 2008
Contact: Georgine Getty, 421-7803 or 513-295-8969

Streetvibes Sells Out for Second Month in a Row

Cincinnati – While newspapers across the country are losing circulation, Streetvibes is having to print more copies to keep up with customer demand. The April edition of Streetvibes completely sold out, according to Georgine Getty, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, which publishes Streetvibes.

The March edition of the paper also sold out, she says. Circulation has increased by 85 percent in the first four months of the year, compared to 2007.

“Our vendors have really been getting out there and selling the papers,” Getty says. “We owe a lot to the tenacity of the vendors. They are out there no matter what the weather, selling papers and spreading the word about poverty. We are also very grateful for the wonderful relationships they have built with their loyal customers.”

The Homeless Coalition had been printing 5,000 copies a month, but raised the number to 6,000 for the April edition. Because of increased demand for the paper, the next edition of Streetvibes will be 7,000 copies, Getty says.

“In this time of wide discussion in Cincinnati about poverty issues, homelessness, affordable housing and living wage jobs, we are pleased to see that people are turning to Streetvibes for a perspective on these issues that they can’t get from other publications,” she says.

Streetvibes features stories about the struggles and successes of homeless people, low-income families, urban life and social justice. Vendors learn entrepreneurship and sales skills by selling the paper for $1. Vendors keep 75 cents from each copy, and a quarter goes to printing costs.

One of the most colorful vendors is Cleo Wombles, who is a familiar sight in his clown nose and wig as he sells Streetvibes at Fifth and Walnut streets. Wombles also writes jokes for the paper.

“If you can make people laugh, they’ll buy from you,” he says.

Real Change in the NYT

Annoyed that Seattle tourists had the gall to bitch to the press about the eyesore of "transients" in this city, author Jonathan Raban decided to take a homeless guy to lunch. He found Real Change vendor Fred Spruitenberg, and the result was a column in Sunday's New York Times. Fred, he found, was a real human being, with thoughts and interests and aspirations and imperfections, just like the rest of us. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's a really nice piece of writing.

Fred mentioned Goblin Market, a Christina Rossetti poem that helped Raban frame just what needs to be said about Seattle at this particular moment in time.

Like Fred, Seattle has been a longstanding client of the goblin merchants. The city is littered with expensive toys and baubles, like Paul Allen’s grand folly, the Experience Music Project, a globular, multicolored extravaganza designed by Frank Gehry and known as “the hemorrhoids” by employees of the public TV station that overlooks it, but which now appears to my eye as a cornucopia of goblin damsons, figs and pomegranates.

Likewise, the new $52 million, 1.3-mile streetcar line, a pet project of the mayor, which runs from downtown to the giant construction site of South Lake Union, and whose shiny red, orange and purple cars are cute, quaint and eerily underpatronized. This is the city that a couple of years ago came within an inch of spending $11 billion (including the cost of debt service) on a new monorail system, cool as an iPhone but of doubtful utility.

As the faint breeze from the east strengthens into the frigid wind of recession, Seattle will have to reckon with its weakness for the goblin stuff. A chastening reading of Fred’s favorite poem might be a good place to start.

Street Corner relaunches as Megaphone

Hey NASNA,

In case you haven't heard the word, Vancouver's Street Corner has relaunched as Megaphone magazine. We decided to change our name so we could refresh our look and make some noise in this city.

We went with the name Megaphone because our vendors wanted a name that gave them a 'voice' and because there are two European papers with the same name (we got the 'it's all good' from both of them). We stayed with our same format (8" x 10.5 ", demi-tab), but added eight more pages (we're now 24 pages) and better quality paper. Vancouver is a bit of a delusional city (imagine if Pittsburgh thought it was Paris), so we hope a high-quality paper will silence/win over any doubters. 

To celebrate our relaunch, we held an art auction and managed to raise a couple thousand dollars (we tried to keep the art cheap and ask for donations at the door). The goal of the organization is to now double the number of vendors to 30 by the end of the year and hire at least one staff member. The goal of the paper is to wake up Vancouver and raise a little hell (think Bryan Adams meets Triumph - you may have to be Canadian to get these references). MegaphoneMagazine.com should be up and running by early May.

Computer Programs

We are updating our newspaper designing software. Currently we use Pagemaker but are switching to Adobe InDesign or Quark. Which do you use and do you have a preference or experiences with both or one in particular? Any insight would be helpful. Thanks

Andy

Content

Can anyone give me some tips on how to develop content for the paper. It seems like for the past two months I haven't really gotten all the story ideas that I want until like the last week. So, for the first part of the month it's fairly relaxed and then the last week I am scrambling to get all the articles/photos together to my designer in time to have it published. So, anyone have suggestions on how to get stories that are relevant each issue and can come in a timely fashion?

Thanks!
Brandon

Selling Out of Papers

For the first time in as long as I have been here, Streetvibes sold out of its March issue a week before the April issue arrives. I was curious what other papers do when they sell out of a current issue. We made a quick call to sell last month's issues for 10 cents instead of the regular 25 cents. Any other thoughts or ideas on this issue (I guess it is a good issue to have) Thanks