NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Nashville street newspaper that rose from a shoestring operation helping the homeless to the biggest-circulation publication of its kind in North America now finds itself seeking a helping hand in hard times.
Now the staff of The Contributor hope readers will pitch in with donations to help a long-thriving paper survive.
The publication has risen from an all-volunteer effort to a nonprofit with a paid staff helping to turn out 110,000 papers a month. But fundraising hasn't kept pace with the paper's growth. The Contributor is now reporting just enough money for one more edition.
"Final Issue?" reads the latest headline of The Contributor, which has aided hundreds of Nashville's poor and homeless since its 2007 beginnings.