No change? No problem as homeless newspaper launches first-of-its kind digital sales

For years, hundreds of homeless and low-income vendors have relied on selling the Real Change newspaper to survive.

But founder Tim Harris said it’s getting harder and harder.

“Fewer and fewer people are carrying cash, and the way people get their news is changing, moving more and more to the digital world. For papers like us to remain, successful we have to deal with both of those issues,” Harris said.

Thanks to some volunteers from Google in Seattle, the so-called “street paper” is doing just that – unveiling Thursday the nation’s first app for cashless, digital sales and a digital version for all devices.

“Our vendors have been missing a lot of opportunities over recent years. We anticipate this is going to be huge,” Harris said.

It took several years to make it happen, said Jill Woelfer, a Google user experience researcher.

The idea came when a group of volunteers working with Real Change saw the opportunity to bring the newspaper into the digital era – a huge challenge for the tiny operation founded by Harris.

Their solution was the creation of an app tied to a QR code on each vendor’s badge. Customers simply download it on iOS or Android and enter their credit card information, just like a Starbucks Card.

“On their badge you’ll scan that QR code with your phone and then you go through a short payment sequence and then the paper will be available in your favorite e-reader on your phone,” Woelfer said.

Real Change currently sells about 12,000 copies each week around the Puget Sound area. Vendors buy the paper from the company and keep a large percentage of the proceeds from each $2 copy sold.

“In over a year we help more than 800 people and annually our readers put more than $1 million directly in the pockets of our vendors, so this is something that makes a real difference in people’s lives,” Harris said. “These are folks who don’t have a lot of access to employment opportunities.”

Harris hopes the new app and digital edition will expose it to far more readers, especially younger ones who’ve not read it before. He’s hopeful they’ll realize it’s not just a throwaway.

“Real Change is a real quality newspaper. We won 16 regional first place journalism awards last year. People that read Real Change know us as a real quality source of community news,” he said.

While Real Change is the first street paper to implement the Google app, Woelfer’s group is looking to get it to far more around the nation, and ultimately the world.

The timing is perfect. Seattle will host an international conference of street papers this summer. As a board member, Harris will be showing his app to hundreds of others.

“And what’s really quite cool about it is our group of Google volunteers has been invited to appear at that conference and lead a workshop that will help other papers take up this mode that Real Change is pioneering,” Woelfer said.

The price for downloading an e-version of the publication is $2.99 (including a fee from digital content providers) while the paper copy will continue to cost $2. Vendors will receive $1.49 from the sale of the digital version, and continue to receive $1.40 from the sale of the paper version.

The app is available for download now at the iTunes store and Google Play. You can learn more here.