I love checking out the free newspapers in a new city.
Philadelphia was a special treat because, while I can usually find only one, maybe two, free tabloids in a city, I found eight.
I traveled to the city of brotherly love to attend the Justice Conference as part of a class I am taking at Bryan College. The Justice Conference is a gathering of Evangelical Christians talking about issues surrounding social justice.
The free-newspaper deluge began at 7:30 a.m. as I opened the hotel room door to discover complimentary copies of USA Today. Perhaps I shouldn’t term this as a free paper because I did not find it on the street, but it did provide a lot of information and a sense of sophistication as I carried it to the lobby.
Throughout the day, I would go to the rusted newspaper stands marked with tags and stickers and peel back the doors to collect another paper.
Because I was attending sessions all day, I have not had the chance to look at the papers closely. I glanced at headlines and looked at newspaper design.
The papers are diverse. Some have a local-newspaper look Other papers are put together more like magazines. I’m sure the writing will differ as widely.
These alternative papers will provide a street-view of the city, providing a window into the concerns of each sector of the community. And there are diverse communities. Among the papers, I picked up a LGBT paper, a campus newspaper, a Spanish paper and an arts paper.
However, I’m not quite done. When I was walking to the Liberty Bell with the rest of the Bryan students, I saw a Chinese paper, and I know there is Street-Sense-type paper also sold in Philly.
Daniel Jackson 