Newspapers battle for streets of Edmonton
Last Updated: Thursday, November 13, 2003 | 3:22 PM ET
CBC News
"A lot of our vendors right now are kind of like a little apprehensive about the idea of another street paper arriving on the block," said John Zapantis, who sells Our Voice.
The newspaper has been on the streets of Edmonton, so to speak, for a decade, offering homeless people an alternative to panhandling for money.
Zapantis is accustomed to bringing in about $20 to $30 a day selling the papers. But across the street, another vendor selling a similar paper is putting that meagre income in jeopardy.
Both Our Voice and the Edmonton Street News sell for 50 cents an issue.
The upstart publisher says the difference is in how her paper covers issues that are important to homeless people.
"The coverage in Our Voice in the past six months or so was not empathic (sic) to the people they are writing about – the poor," said Linda Dumont. "Some of the stories were written from an outsider-looking-in point of view."
Many street newspapers across the country are going more mainstream to attract more readers, she said. She plans to keep her paper focused on advocating for the poor.
Our Voice manager Warren Bjarnason says the competition could wind up hurting homeless people.
"I hope the market can sustain two street papers because it's very difficult for a city to sustain one street paper," he said.
