Street press

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Street press is a term used to describe a certain type of publishing, between zines and magazines/newspapers in terms of distribution. They are particularly prolific in Australia, although there are also some examples from Europe and North America. Australian street press publish over 400,000 issues each week.

[edit] Characteristics of street press

One of the defining characteristics of street press is that it comes free to the reader, usually there is no cost involved with obtaining a copy. Therefore, in order to financially support themselves, street press usually take on more advertisements and sponsorships than other forms of media. They are usually also a lot more professional in appearance and composition than zines, with established business structures and relatively mainstream content.

Most street press publications are printed on low-quality newspaper stock in order to reduce costs. Some of the bigger publications print their covers and first few pages in colour, a rarer few use glossy paper for their cover. Virtually none of them print more than a couple of pages in colour. The size varies widely, some are printed in broadsheet format, some in tabloid format, and some in magazine-sized format. Non-standard paper sizes are also common, especially in the more obscure publications.

Community newspapers, that is, newspapers consisting primarily of localised news, distributed throughout a neighbourhood for zero or trivial cost, do not fall into this category, as they simply imitate conventional newspapers. Street press is usually distributed through different channels, such as newsstands at restaurants, clubs, and record stores, rather than home delivered as community newspapers usually are. In addition, street press usually covers only a specific area of interest, whereas community newspapers might cover a wide variety of topics.

[edit] Topics covered by street press

Street press publications can cover a wide variety of topics, with most of them covering independent and alternative music. Other niche publications might involve political satire, gay and lesbian issues, and film. Street press tends to have more mainstream, broad-appeal subject matter than zines, in order to attract sponsors, and increase readership.