Mission Statement
MISSION
*Investigate & expose injustice
*Display original writing, arts & criticism
*Deliver stories by, about or for under-represented groups
*Depict a range of avant-gardes, undergrounds & alternative lifestyles
*Chart the struggles for social & economic justice
*Feature strategic analysis, dissenting opinions & DIY articles
*Promote ways to educate, connect & transform
We support non-mainstream, radical, progressive points of view and at the same tim earn a reputation for the ability to communicate, educate and build community relationships.
Our goal is to help people become proactive, think critically, and become aware of their potential individually and together. We work to build positive social change and build communities and ties between communities.
Description
The Washington Spark is a new alternative newspaper that is run completely by volunteers--about 65 people working an average of 5 hours/week in their specialty. We are mission-based, not market-driven and have found many people who can deliver quality alternative news in their topic areas. The newspaper is 32 pages distributed in 20,000 copies around metropolitan Washington DC, including Maryland and Virginia.
Because we are all-volunteer we accept ads from small or socially responsible advertisers (artists, self-employed, nonprofits, and small businesses) and, if they need it our advertisers can create a new design free of charge. This not only helps them but makes for a cooler looking newspaper. (While other newspapers do 60% we can get by with 20% ads and prefer a newspaper with more space for our educational articles.)
There are four sections of the paper: WORLD, CITY, NEIGHBORHOODS, YOU (the last section focusing on arts, culture, jobs, self-development, etc.). An online workflow system organizes the many contributions and communications of individuals and of teams (photography, reporting, layout, editing, advertising, ad design, etc.).
PDF files of previous issues of the paper can be seen at www.washingtonspark.org
Got any questions or comments? Please contact our managing editor at markgjcimino@yahoo.com
