Editing Real Change (section)

==History and Circulation==
''Real Change'' has been published by the Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project since 1994;<ref name=pi/><ref>{{cite web | title=Real Change History | url=http://realchange.wikispaces.com/page/view/History/19101075 | publisher=Real Change | date=10 March 2008 | accessdate=21 March 2009 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120716083937/http://realchange.wikispaces.com/page/view/History/19101075 | archivedate=16 July 2012 }}</ref> the paper's founder, Tim Harris, founded the ''[[Spare Change News]]'' street newspaper in the [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] area in 1992. After moving to Seattle in 1994, he started ''Real Change''<ref name=KUOW>{{cite web |url=http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=25992 |title=KUOW 94.9 FM Seattle interview, The Conversation |date=15 Feb 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603175023/http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=25992 |archivedate=2012-06-03 }}roughly at 10:30 into interview</ref> as a monthly paper with only one staff member. Later, the paper started producing every other week.<ref name=pi/>

In February 2005, ''Real Change'' began publishing weekly due to increasing interest and sales,<ref name=pi>{{cite news | url=http://www.seattlepi.com/local/210355_realchange02.html | date=2 February 2005 | accessdate=21 March 2009 | title=Real Change expands to become first weekly street paper | work=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]] | last=Harrell | first=Debera Carlton }}{{Dead link|date=December 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> making it the second street newspaper in the country to do so.<ref group=note>''[[StreetWise]]'', a Chicago street newspaper, went weekly in 1998. ({{cite book | last=Green | first=Norma Fay | title=Print Culture in a Diverse America | year=1998 | others=eds. James Philip Danky, Wayne A. Wiegand | publisher=University of Illinois Press | isbn=978-0-252-06699-3 | chapter=Chicago's ''StreetWise'' at the Crossroads: A Case Study of a Newspaper to Empower the Homeless in the 1990s | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vqtgo0Zi0jEC&dq=%22street+newspapers%22&pg=PA48 | page=51}}
)</ref>  In addition to becoming a weekly newspaper, it hired several professional journalists shifting its focus to become a broadly [[Progressivism|progressive]] alternative paper.<ref name=dawdy/><ref name=readers/> As a biweekly, it sold 18,000 copies every two weeks;<ref name=pi/> and now has a weekly circulation of 16,000 papers. In April 2013, the paper's price increased from one dollar to two dollars and was the sixth street newspaper to do so.<ref>{{cite news|last=Brill|first=Linda|title=Real Change newspaper's price hike a boost for vendors .|url=http://www.king5.com/news/cities/seattle/Real-Change-Price-Change-203702351.html|accessdate=20 April 2013|newspaper=KING 5 News|date=18 April 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424050142/http://www.king5.com/news/cities/seattle/Real-Change-Price-Change-203702351.html|archivedate=24 April 2013}}</ref>

In 2012, it sold 872,562 copies and raised $957,949: 68.42 percent from donations and grants; 31.26 percent from circulation, advertising and [[subscriptions]]; and 0.32 percent from other sources.<ref name=2012annual>{{cite news|title=Real Change: 2012 Annual Report|newspaper=Real Change|date=13 March 2013}}</ref> As of 2017, it has a yearly circulation of 550,000 copies and sales account for 30 percent of the $1.2 million budget; beginning in 2019, vendors are able to take payment using the [[Venmo]] app.<ref>{{cite news |last=Doughton |first=Sandi |authorlink=Sandi Doughton |date=January 10, 2019 |title=Real Change: How Seattle's street newspaper plans to survive in the digital age |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/real-change-how-seattles-street-newspaper-plans-to-survive-in-the-digital-age/ |work=The Seattle Times |accessdate=January 10, 2019}}</ref>