streetwise

StreetWise

Type	Weekly newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Editor	Suzanne Hanney
Founded	1991
Headquarters	1201 West Lake Street Chicago, Illinois 60607 US
Website	streetwise.org

StreetWise vendor

StreetWise is a street newspaper sold by people without homes or those at-risk for homelessness in Chicago. Topics covered in the paper vary depending on what is happening in Chicago at the time. In 2003, it had the largest readership of any street newspaper in the United States of America.^[1]

StreetWise contains art, poetry, and articles by vendors; as well as stories of local and national interest, particularly progressive issues.

History

StreetWise Headquarters on Lake Street

The paper was started in 1991 by Judd Lofchie ^[2]and about 200 vendors sell approximately 20,000 papers weekly. The vendors buy the paper for 75 cents each^[3] and keep the profit.^[4]

The weekly Chicago magazine, created as a method by which the homeless or at-risk could derive an income, had fallen victim to a slow economy.^[5] Foundation support had made up nearly half of StreetWise's $500,000 budget but is down 60 percent. Ad revenues also are in decline and street sales have dropped 20 percent, publishers say.^[5]

After the newspaper's publishers and board members announced on April 15, 2009 that declining revenues and foundation support might force a closure with 45 days, donations began pouring in. Before the end of the day, an influx of almost $41,000 helped the ailing publication halfway to its goal.^[5] Within a week, over $190,000 in donations were made, far exceeding the needed $75,000 to keep afloat, stated StreetWise board Vice Chairman Pete Kadens.^[6]

See also

• International Network of Street Papers
• North American Street Newspaper Association

References

• Green, Norma Fay (1998). "Chicago's StreetWise at the Crossroads: A Case Study of a Newspaper to Empower the Homeless in the 1990s". Print Culture in a Diverse America. eds. James Philip Danky, Wayne A. Wiegand. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252066995. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vqtgo0Zi0jEC&pg=PA48&dq=%22street+newspapers%22&ei=Jq-VSaeRMImuMqmD9aQJ#PPA34,M1. 

External links

• streetwise.org

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