Maria McCloy
Homeless Talk has almost doubled its print run and plans to expand circulation. Last Saturday Homeless Talk Pretoria was launched and it is hoped that it will be available in all South Africa’s metropolitan areas by next year. According to the editorial co-ordinator of Homeless Talk, Glenn Grant, the paper has increased its print run from 15 000 in 1994 to 25 000 today. He says circulation and readership have risen from 1,8 readers a copy to 3,5 readers.
Despite the newspaper’s name, it has never been a forum for the homeless, though it is written (there are writing workshops) and sold by the homeless (they buy it for 60c, sell it for R2 and keep the profit). The newspaper features stories on issues that affect their lives and includes poetry.
This is all material that would never feature in a mainstream newspaper, but according to Grant, its audience is 85% white and from the AB income-earning group.
Grant (who used to edit a golf publication before he took over five months ago) says there have been more readers because of better management and more public awareness.
He believes the number of ads are still low because advertisers perceive it as a magazine for the homeless, and are unaware that its main audience is what Grant calls “some of the countries top earners”.
Grant concedes many purchase the magazine as “a guilt buy”, whereas he would prefer it to be bought for its independence, unique content and point of view. He believes that there is not a large black readership because of the stigma attached to homelessness.
One Homeless Talk vendor confirmed that his readership are “mostly white people [who] buy from me, obviously because they have more money. Black people? Ag, they’re shit, they’re useless, they don’t support you, two out of 10 buyers are black … maybe they don’t have money, maybe they think you don’t want to look for work.”
The paper, which is operated under the auspices of the Johannesburg Trust for the Homeless, was able to start due to donations and grants: founding contributors include homeless community members, the Central Methodist Mission and St George’s United Church but also survives through sales. Grant aims to lessen the dependence of donors and be more self-sufficient.
Aside from self-sufficiency for the paper, he hopes this will result in the homeless being able to buy the paper for 20c and retaining the profits from the R2 cover price.