| ||
Does anyone still believe the media have a left-wing bias? Weigh in on politically slanted reporting in Table Talk's Media area R E C E N T L Y Hollywoodland
Barney alert
Radio omm
Bertelsmann's online blitzkrieg
"From Jesus to Christ"
BROWSE THE
|
E X T R A !._ E X T R A !
A slick new British newspaper causes a ruckus in the homeless newsrooms of America.
BY CAROL LLOYD | They greet you on the streets, cheerfully peddling their wares like merchants from another century. They ask you to pay only what you can afford, and gush thanks when you offer them any kindness -- even if it does not result in a sale. The thing you buy from these grateful vendors has an odd value, one that has nothing to do with the product itself. For the money you are spending goes directly into the pockets of a homeless person. For the past few years, I have made a habit of buying the local homeless newspaper, San Francisco's Street Sheet. I don't always read it because at times I find it so garbled as to be incomprehensible. The stories may vary but the ideology never does: The mayor is an asshole, the homeless people noble victims, the middle-class people too self-obsessed to care. It is a temperamental, radical rag, written mostly by homeless or ex-homeless people and edited, well, lightly. It isn't the best place to find well-oiled prose or even logical arguments, but it is the only place where I can hear the voices -- enraged, sad, incoherent and sometimes wise -- of people who have nothing. In an era of Rupert Murdochs and Ted Turners, Knight-Ridders and Gannetts, when corporations like Westinghouse and cults like the Moonies are gobbling up the media, homeless newspapers represent one of the last frontiers of independent journalism. But even this tattered haven of progressive politics has now been invaded by a well-tailored media franchise. This month the Big Issue, an international chain of street newspapers that first published in London in 1992, launched its first American newspaper in Los Angeles. The Big Issue is by far the most successful street newspaper in the world, with a weekly circulation of over 300,000 in the United Kingdom and thriving publications in Australia and South Africa. It was founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick, who is married to that diva of politically correct capitalism, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Unlike American homeless newspapers -- most of which don't take advertising, run stories exclusively about homeless issues and pay their staff poorly, if at all -- the Big Issue sells glossy advertising, writes for a middle-class readership and pays its staff professional wages. Its vendors pay 40 cents for each newspaper, which they then sell. (By contrast, many American homeless newspapers don't charge their vendors anything.) The cover of the first Los Angeles Big Issue -- Martin Sheen, who talks about his work with the homeless -- exemplifies the magazine's strategy: the bitter pill of politics disguised in a tasty arts-and-entertainment cocktail. By all accounts, the formula works. The Big Issue competes with other major U.K. glossies, with youth-oriented corporate advertisers such as Levis, Calvin Klien and Doc Martin jumping on board. Last year, the Big Issue made a profit of $1.3 million -- all of which went to the Big Issue Foundation, which supports organizations for the homeless. It is precisely this success, however, that has made some American street newspapers so uncomfortable with its arrival. At the first conference of the National Association of Street Newspapers in September 1997, some editors voiced objections to the Big Issue -- portraying it as a corporate behemoth trying to stage a takeover. "The Big Issue is just using their homeless vendors, who aren't making any money," said Lydia Ely, editor of Street Sheet and one of the most vocal opponents of the Big Issue's liberal, entrepreneurial approach. "If it wasn't for homelessness, they wouldn't be around. They get sympathy advertising, and it's really just an economic development tool." "People need to do their research," said Cara Solomon, deputy editor of Los Angeles Big Issue. "The whole purpose of the Big Issue is to help homeless people. We give them work, not charity. And all of our profits go to the Big Issue Foundation." Ely notes that Street Sheet, started in 1989, is the oldest homeless newspaper in the country. Its grass-roots strategy, which doesn't charge vendors and takes no government funding or advertising, has given homeless people a place where they can discuss the issues affecting their lives, she says. "No one writes about homelessness now unless it's the holidays," she said. "People complain that we're so doom and gloom, and we say, 'Well, being homeless really sucks.'" But Big Issue's John Bird argues that Street Sheet's grass-roots approach has not worked for New York City's Street News. The first homeless magazine, which started in 1987 and focused exclusively on issues of poverty, now is on the verge of folding. In the past few months the debate has risen to a boiling point as Jennifer Waggoner, the editor of Making Change, a Santa Monica, Calif., homeless paper, has taken on the Big Issue. Although Waggoner has only published one issue of Making Change -- from a laptop in the back of her truck -- many of her fellow street editors have rushed to her defense. "The fear was that the small newspapers would be completely marginalized and will not be able to compete," said Tim Harris, founder of Seattle's street paper, Real Change, and co-founder of NASNA. Last month he brokered a deal between Waggoner and the Big Issue that primarily consisted of offering Waggoner a series of concessions. Big Issue vowed to buy her a computer, help her find office space, offer financial and technical assistance and stay off her Santa Monica turf. Big Issue also vowed to negotiate with NASNA before it launches any more American newspapers. But though the Big Issue has bent over backward in trying to mollify its fellow publishers, the relationship between Waggoner and Big Issue seems destined to be a rocky one. Harris said he had just received an e-mail from Waggonner expressing her displeasure with how the agreement is working out. (She was not available to be interviewed because she was protesting at a Nevada test site.) The problem isn't that the Big Issue may force homeless vendors of other street papers to lose their jobs (which in any case rarely provide a living wage); anyone displaced can find work with the Big Issue. In many ways, the conflict comes down to a clash between two philosophies for achieving social change. Unlike the Big Issue, papers like Street Sheet and Making Change do not claim to be eliminating homelessness by giving their vendors employment; their aim is simply to give the poor a voice, a little bit of money and a place to find respectable work. The Big Issue, and to a lesser extent other more commercial papers like San Diego's Street Times, have loftier goals. They want to use self-help and capitalism to get people off the street and away from criminal activities. "We're looking to skin the cat a different way," said an upbeat Solomon, eager to cast the best possible light on the controversy. "Both approaches need to be used and Making Change has incredible things to offer us." Many of the editors I spoke to echoed Solomon's hope that since both papers serve different purposes, both can learn from each other and coexist peacefully. But even if that's true, it's not paranoid to imagine that the Big Issue and other newspapers governed by the same principles, even as they pour substantial funding into homeless organizations, will eventually erode the readership of other homeless rags. If this happens, we may see more homeless vendors -- wearing badges and dressed for work -- but where will we read their stories?
|
|
![[Salon Magazine]](/media/src/salon_logo.gif){kind=logo}
Arts & Entertainment | Books | Comics | Life | News | People
Politics | Sex | Tech & Business | Audio
The Free Software Project | The Movie Page
Letters | Columnists | Salon Plus
Copyright © 2000 Salon.com All rights reserved.