New paper seeks to be community 'beacon'
By Brittany Clement
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There's a new newspaper on the Marquette campus - and this one is taking to the streets.
The Milwaukee Street Beacon made its debut Monday as a street newspaper dedicated to urban and community issues in Milwaukee's Avenues West district, which includes Marquette. The first issue features stories about both Marquette's surrounding area, such as a look at development projects in the Near West Side, and the Marquette community, with profiles of student volunteers.
A street newspaper, by definition, focuses on poverty issues in a community and is a nonprofit venture, according to Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless and cofounder of the North American Street Newspaper Association.
"The purpose is to educate the community and to provide a venue for homeless people to use their creative talents," Stoops said.
The Street Beacon editorial and design staff comprises 10 Marquette students, and the paper pays members of the local homeless community to distribute copies of the publication in front of Raynor Library.
According to Street Beacon Editor in Chief Matthew Ryno, a College of Communication senior, all proceeds from the paper, which is sold at a suggested donation price of 25 cents, will go directly to the vendors.
"The salary of the homeless vendors is guaranteed," said Peter McCuskey, a College of Arts & Sciences sophomore involved in the logistics and planning of the paper. "Whether we make money or not, it's up to us to find alternative funding."
The 4,000 copies of the first issue cost $850 to print, according to Ryno, and he said about half were sold for 25 cents while the remaining issues would be given out for free today. He said funding future issues would be a concern, because the paper was denied funding by Marquette Student Government and is not funded by the university.
Ryno said he would try to find advertising revenue from local businesses instead, and hoped to gather enough funds for a quarterly publication.
"I don't think that students should have to go to the community to get funding, but that's how it is," he said.
Ryno said he got the idea for a street newspaper last semester when he saw one in Washington, D.C., while studying at the Les Aspin Center for Government. He said he pursued the concept because Marquette is situated in an urban area and another Jesuit institution - Gonzaga University - had already created such a publication.
In starting the Street Beacon, Ryno and the other Marquette students involved joined those at Gonzaga and the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the only three campus-based street papers in the country, Stoops said.
Despite the low number of universities involved, many homeless organizations have been involved in the history of street newspapers. The movement began in 1989 with the Street News in New York City and the Street Sheet in San Francisco, according to Stoops. Both publications are still in existence.
In the '90s, Stoops said more publications popped up independently, but little networking was available for individual editors to find funding and other resources.
Because of this concern, various members of the street newspaper community convened in Chicago in 1996 - when the North American Street Newspaper Association was founded.
Since then, Stoops has helped start street newspapers by providing information, technical assistance and guidance on where to find funding.
Ryno said he contacted Stoops when he was in the beginning stages of the Street Beacon.
"My role was to be supportive," Stoops said. "I sensed that Matt had the ability and leadership to pull off a street newspaper in Milwaukee."
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