North American Street Newspaper Association hires first Executive Director

The North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) hired its first Executive Director, Andy Freeze from StreetvVibes in Cincinnati, Ohio. Freeze, pictured above (left), will head up the North American organization starting in January and be headquartered in Washington D.C.

Street Roots is a member of both NASNA and the International Network of Street Papers. There are more than 25 street newspapers in North America and 90 worldwide.

Over the past two years, Street Roots has played a leading role in developing both organizations by helping with strategic planning and business development for individual newspapers worldwide.

Israel Bayer, Street Roots director, is the Vice-Chairperson for NASNA, while Joanne Zuhl, Street Roots Managing Editor sits on both the INSP and NASNA Board of Directors.

Both organizations have created the Street News Service, a news wire service for street newspapers around the world to share content.

Street newspapers date back to the 19th century, when the Salvation Army created the War Cry, a weekly publication in Cleveland. From 1872 to the 1920s, the Christian-influenced paper was sold on street corners to help explain to the public how they could help the needy.

Several other papers followed the “War Cry,” including the “Hobo News” sold in cities throughout the United States during the depression era. The oldest existing street paper today is “Street Sheet” in San Francisco, which came out with its first issue in December 1989. Street Roots followed ten-year later.

Freeze will be helping grow the organizations’ development capacity and working one on one with street papers throughout North America to develop the technical assistance needed to make each newspaper successful in their respected communities.