''Real Change'' is a weekly progressive street newspaper based in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

, USA written by

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

staff and sold by self-employed vendors, many of whom are

homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

. 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) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

non-profit organization with an annual budget of $950,000.

History and Circulation

''Real Change'' has been published by the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project since 1994; the paper's founder, Tim Harris, founded the ''

Spare Change News ''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 Projec ...

'' street newspaper in the

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

area in 1992. After moving to Seattle in 1994, he started ''Real Change''roughly at 10:30 into interview as a monthly paper with only one staff member. Later, the paper started producing every other week. In February 2005, ''Real Change'' began publishing weekly due to increasing interest and sales, making it the second street newspaper in the country to do so.'' StreetWise'', a Chicago street newspaper, went weekly in 1998. ( ) In addition to becoming a weekly newspaper, it hired several professional journalists shifting its focus to become a broadly progressive alternative paper. As a biweekly, it sold 18,000 copies every two weeks; and now has a weekly circulation of 16,000 papers. In April 2013, the paper's price increased from one dollar to two dollars and was the sixth street newspaper to do so. In 2012, it sold 872,562 copies and raised $957,949: 68.42 percent from donations and grants; 31.26 percent from circulation, advertising and subscriptions; and 0.32 percent from other sources. As of 2017, it has a yearly circulation of 550,000 copies and sales account for 30 percent of the $1.2 million budget; beginning in 2019, vendors are able to take payment using the Venmo app.

The topics covered in ''Real Change'' are a mixture of progressive local news and information specifically pertaining to the homeless and poor. Though it covers local news, it still openly advocates for "

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

" and attempts to educate readers about homelessness. Some readers, though, admit that they buy the paper more to help out and interact with the vendors than to actually read the contents; this pattern of buying is common among street newspapers. Part of the reason for the paper becoming a weekly publication in 2005 was to attract more readers and move the newspaper's image from a "charity buy" to a legitimate source of news.

Vendors

Anyone may be a ''Real Change'' vendor. However, most are poor or unable to hold a regular job due to physical disability,

mental illness A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

, criminal records, or other issues. After attending an orientation and signing a code of conduct, Vendors get their first 10 papers free. They then buy the paper for sixty cents and sell it for two dollars keeping the difference, plus any tips. The paper has an average of 350 to 400 active vendors each month and there as many as 800 vendors in a year, if occasional vendors are included. Most vendors sell within Seattle proper, although some sell in the Eastside, as far north as Bellingham, and as far south as Olympia, WA. Vendors may sell without restriction on sidewalks and public spaces, and sometimes need to obtain permission to sell in commercial areas like malls. Several vendors are very successful, selling as many as 2,000 papers a month and being known as "fixtures" in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

, however most sell far less than that. ''Real Change's'' "turf system" allows vendors selling over 300 papers per month to have priority at certain spots; according to Harris, this system allows buyer-vendor relationships to grow and for vendors to become well known in communities, and can minimize conflict and

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...

between vendors. Not all the vendors of ''Real Change'' are

, several are able to afford an apartment by selling the paper and others share accommodations with others. Like

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

's '' Street Sense'', ''Real Change'' does not screen incoming vendors for income or living situation, nor does it "retire" vendors after they have obtained stable housing. The paper's staff have stated, however, that the majority of vendors are living in

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

and no vendors are "living in the bling-bling" from selling papers.

Awards

2004: :*Susan Hutchison Bosch Award for outstanding achievement 2006: :*First place, personalities 2008: :*Best feature writing :*First place, general news reporting :*First place, social issues :*First place, minorities :*Third place, humorous writing :*Honorable mention, personalities 2009: :*First place, educational reporting :*First place, social issues reporting :*First place, Arts reporting and criticism 2011: :*First place, education news :*First place, consumer affairs news :*Third place, social issues, religion, minority affairs :*Third place, personality profile 2012: :*First place, general news coverage :*First place, lifestyle reporting :*First place, page design :*Second place, government and politics reporting :*Second place, feature photography :*Third place, page design 2013: :*First place, general news coverage :*First place, government and politics reporting :*First place, education reporting :*First place, page design :*Second place, page design :*Second place, social issues reporting :*Second place, general excellence :*Third place, sports reporting

Notes

References

External links