Street papers, such as The Big Issue in the UK, exist to help homeless people earn a dignified income. From the first-ever street paper in New York in 1989, there are now 122 different publications supporting homeless vendors in 40 different countries. At the centre of this worldwide movement against social injustice is Glasgow-based INSP (International Network of Street Papers), an NGO that promotes the concept and supports street paper organisations in their ongoing development towards sharing knowledge, skills and technology.

In the past year alone, our street papers have helped more than 28,000 homeless vendors to earn an income. At any one time, there are around 14,000 street paper vendors in 600 towns and cities around the world. Together they earn over $40 million (USD) per year. In the past 20 years, since that first New York publication, around 250,000 homeless people have sold street papers, helping themselves out of poverty. But readership patterns are changing. The mainstream press has witnessed a huge shift from print consumption to digital, with many street papers facing similar issues. So we need to find a way take the concept into the 21st century and provide a lifeline to the growing numbers of urban homeless. In so doing, we need to solve a unique challenge, which is how to preserve the immediate human interaction between street paper vendors and their customers. Because it’s that vital interaction that lets vendors earn their income, while at the same time initiating conversation between people who often inhabit completely separate worlds.

So in November last year – the same month that Newsweek announced plans to scrap its print edition and Financial Times' digital subscriptions surpassed print – we unveiled the world’s first 'digital street paper' as a pilot in Manchester, England, with The Big Issue in the North magazine. 

To retain the crucial vendor-buyer contact on the streets, we set up a system so that Big Issue vendors might sell the magazine in two formats – print or digital – priced equally. Customers choosing the digital version buy a printed access card that features a QR code which give instant access on compatible handsets (a web URL is also provided for users without a QR reader).

The digital platform is a universal, HTML5 web app that is compatible with all major smartphone, tablet and desktop systems. The platform is set up to allow The Big Issue editorial team to generate the digital magazine from print-ready documents, so that they can publish the digital edition quickly and easily, without additional cost and without the need to acquire new digital production skills or resources.

The Manchester launch has been met with positive feedback from the public, media and vendors alike and it has been a valuable learning process for both the Big Issue vendors and staff. The UK trial is still running and is soon to be joined by another of INSP street papers – StreetWise in Chicago. We are looking forward to piloting the system in a second city, with a different audience, and getting feedback from the Chicago vendors and readers. 

If these pilots prove successful, we aim to a way to make the digital technology available to all INSP street papers. If this can halt the decline in print sales for some of the street papers in our network, it could prove to be a lifeline for thousands of homeless people.

INSP will be the Master Class beneficiaries at our Adventures in Publishing event taking place tomorrow in New at Condé Nast's New York headquarters.

Related content

Report: Adventures in Publishing

Panel: Embrace technology?