Spare Change

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Spare Change News

The September 14, 2006 - September 27, 2006 front page
of Spare Change News
Type Biweekly newspaper
Format Tabloid

Owner Homeless Empowerment Project (HEP)
Founded 1992
Headquarters 1151 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Circulation 10,000 per issue

Website: Homeless Empowerment Project

Spare Change News is a street newspaper published in Cambridge, Massachusetts through the efforts of the Homeless Empowerment Project, a grassroots organization created to help end homelessness.

Each vendor pays 25 cents for each copy of the paper, then he or she sells it on the streets for US$1. As a result, he or she receives a 75-cent profit for each issue sold.

The biweekly, 16-page paper contains a color front and back page, alternative news, arts features, interviews, fiction and poetry that are written by staff writers and journalists, as well as by people who are homeless or work with the homeless. A full page is devoted to listings of local centers for job/skills training, senior care, women's care, drug recovery programs and homeless shelters.

Circulation is roughly 10,000 per issue. SCN and HEP currently rely on grants and donations to publish the newspaper, but the organization is currently working on increasing its advertising revenue to become self-sufficient. In November of 2007, Spare Change merged with Whats Up Magazine.

[edit] Similar projects

  • The Big Issue: England (three separate regional editions), Scotland, Wales; plus separate editions in Australia, Namibia and South Africa
  • Revista Cais, Portugal
  • Macadam journal, Paris, France
  • =Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • Periódico Diagonal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Revista La Luciérnaga, Córdoba, Argentina
  • Street Roots, Portland, OR, USA
  • StreetWise, Chicago, IL, USA
  • De Riepe, Groningen, The Netherlands
  • Street Pulse, Madison, WI, USA

[edit] External links