[Boston-print] Newspaper WAR TIMES: History, Evaluation, Lessons, Future

[John Grebe]

Dear Boston InyMedia Print Team,

We'd glean useful info from this hard-won experience of publishing a radical 
newspaper and website from the lefty movement veterans who put out War Times for 
19 issues of 100,000 copies each. Their evaluation is below.

Keep up your great work!

Kind regards,
John

From:           	"War Times" <info at war-times.org>
Subject:        	WAR TIMES: History, Evaluation, Lessons, Future 
To:             	john at johngrebe.com
Date sent:      	Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:16:20 -0500 (EST)

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>From the War Times/Tiempo de Guerras Organizing Committee
December 2004

You are receiving this message because of your past support and/or work with War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras.

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras, a nationwide, free, bilingual (Spanish and
English), antiwar newspaper, produced 19 issues (distributing roughly 100,000
copies of each) between February 2002 and the suspension of publication in
October 2004. 

Below the War Times/Tiempo de Guerras Organizing Committee reviews the paper’s
origins, purpose, and activities, and then presents some lessons we have learned
from this experience and our future plans.


ORIGINS AND PURPOSE 

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras was initiated in fall 2001 following a series of ad
hoc workshops, “Radicals of All Generations” meetings, and forums involving
several hundred San Francisco Bay Area activists. These discussions did not
focus on the need for a newspaper. Rather, they centered on the sweeping
character of the “permanent war on terrorism” and the urgency of building broad
opposition, especially among constituencies who would be most impacted by the
post-9/11 escalation of militarism, racism, repression and anti-immigrant
assaults.  

As these gatherings proceeded, an inter-generational, majority people of color
group of a dozen activists decided to try to launch an antiwar newspaper. We
envisioned the publication as taking advantage of a new “EDUCATIONAL MOMENT” to
reach people - especially but not exclusively in working class, people of color
and immigrant communities - who were open to an antiwar message but not
(necessarily yet) in the antiwar camp. We believed that reaching this crucial
audience required a vehicle that could be BROUGHT TO THEM (via free distribution
of printed matter) rather than requiring them to come to us. We hoped to provide
an educational/organizing tool for antiwar activists, and through them, an
ENTRYWAY for new people into the antiwar movement, thus complementing the many
other antiwar projects then taking shape. We also hoped to contribute to unity
and better morale among existing antiwar organizations by providing an
attractive, accessible and visible outreach tool utilized 
 by a broad and inclusive network. 

In January 2002 we drafted a prospectus outlining our objectives, signed on a
broad array of well-known endorsers, and began work on a pilot issue. (For the
text of the prospectus, list of endorsers, on-line versions of War Times/Tiempo
de Guerras’ issues and other materials, go to www.war-times.org). 

Our initial plan was to print 10,000 copies of War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’
pilot issue and distribute them in the Bay Area, with the hope that eventually
distribution could go national. However, shortly before we went to press we sent
the prospectus out over the internet and within a week orders came in from all
over the country for a total of 70,000 copies. By February when our pilot came
off the press there was a network of several hundred individuals and
organizations eager to distribute the paper. This network included many
community-based organizations whose main focus was not on antiwar activism but
who wanted to utilize War Times/Tiempo de Guerras to educate their membership
and base about the real agenda of the “war on terrorism” and the links between
international, national and domestic issues. We began regular publication in
April 2002. 


KEY FEATURES OF WAR TIMES/TIEMPO DE GUERRAS

The content and appearance of War Times/Tiempo de Guerras were designed to reach
our prime audience with accurate, timely and accessible information and
analysis. The paper utilized short articles (800 words maximum, and most pieces
were much shorter), photographs, drawings, and cartoons to get our message
across. We strongly emphasized putting a HUMAN FACE on those most impacted by
militarism, racism and repression, and on featuring VOICES AND IMAGES FROM
TARGETED, DISPOSSESSED COMMUNITIES at home and abroad. We did our best to make
sure all the paper’s reporting was fact-based and clearly sourced, with
reference to recognized national and international news sources. 

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras made a point of consistently linking domestic and
international issues, and from the outset stressed the urgency of building
support for Palestinian national rights as an integral part of fighting the “war
on terrorism.” The paper gave special stress to combating the racism intertwined
with all aspects of Bush’s “war on terrorism” agenda. War Times/Tiempo de
Guerras’ BILINGUAL CHARACTER was a crucial aspect of the paper. This made the
paper available to Spanish readers and also made it crystal clear that this
newspaper was extremely racially conscious about its readership and its vision
of the make-up of an antiwar movement. 

Indicating War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ quality, two of our stories were named
by the award-winning media research group Project Censored to their list of the
25 Top Censored Stories of 2003.   

As we spread word about this new effort – mainly via e-mail – more and more
individuals and organizations stepped forward to become distributors. From our
first issue the paper reached readers in ALL 50 STATES, WASHINGTON, D.C. AND
PUERTO RICO via the efforts of more than 700 individuals and groups. Roughly 40
percent of our average press run of 100,000 copies was utilized by distributors
rooted in immigrant and people of color communities. Another 30 percent were
distributed on sociologically diverse college campuses and high schools, many by
bilingual education teachers who used the paper both inside and outside their
classrooms.  

The final 30 percent were handed out by labor activists and mainly white peace
and faith-based groups. Distributors in smaller cities and towns and rural areas
from Texas and Nebraska to New Hampshire and upstate Minnesota found War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras especially useful, since otherwise many of these areas
lacked any other antiwar media presence.   

Printing and shipping so many copies of a newspaper was expensive - about
$15,000 per issue. For funds we RELIED MAINLY ON GRASSROOTS INDIVIDUAL DONORS,
who provided close to 60% of this project’s income. Another 20% came from unions
and other social justice organizations, the final 20% from foundations. We had
the rare pleasure of gaining immediate and meaningful feedback on the usefulness
of the paper as its continued existence was literally dependent upon thousands
of dollars in small donations showing up in our mailbox each week, and on
hundreds of volunteers (few of whom we ever met) requesting bundles issue after
issue.  

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras was overwhelmingly a VOLUNTEER-BASED project. Some
30-35 people contributed regularly to our Editorial (including translation and
art/design), Production, Fundraising, Administration, and
Distribution-Coordination committees. A number of these individuals were not
located in the Bay Area. Only our Managing Editor received a full-time salary.
We also gave our National Distribution Coordinator a part-time stipend in the
last year. 

Policy for the project was set by a 12-member Organizing Committee consisting of
the people who did the most consistent work on the paper and were prepared to
take overall responsibility for the effort. Though among us there were a wide
array of views on many political questions, and we came from different political
backgrounds, we shared an unusual degree of unity around the goals and approach
of this particular project. This allowed decision-making to be decentralized and
enabled us to carry out our work with an absolute minimum of meetings. 


ACTIVITIES: FEBRUARY 2002-OCTOBER 2004

The centerpiece of War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ work was publishing and
distributing the paper itself. Circulation peaked at 125,000 for three issues
appearing just before and after Washington’s March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Demand
for the paper was also above our overall average right after its launch, when
antiwar voices were all but totally excluded from the mainstream media and War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras played a unique role in offering (and modeling) an
accessible antiwar message. 

Supplementing this project’s core activity, we also:

*Launched and maintained a War Times/Tiempo de Guerras website
(www.war-times.org), which contained downloadable copies of each regular issue
as well as other outreach materials (in particular bilingual flyers in
downloadable PDF-file format) and links to other useful sites;

*Provided articles from War Times/Tiempo de Guerras to other publications for
reprinting, a service used extensively especially by the Spanish language
community press.

*Established an e-mail Announcement List which grew to include 8,000 people who
opted to join;

*Played a role in helping organize and sustain the nationwide UNITED FOR PEACE
AND JUSTICE coalition, with one of our Organizing Committee members elected as a
National Co-Chair and another serving as Organizing Director on the UFPJ
national staff;

**Played an initial but then receding role in the Racial Justice 911 National
Network, with two of our members on the steering committee and one as national
coordinator. 

*Built a network of financial supporters, allowing us to RAISE OVER $400,000
since February 2002, about 60% of which came in small amounts from individual
donors. 

In spring 2004, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras began to experience severe financial
strain even though our distribution remained intact. Our donor base was putting
its resources into other projects. In part this was because Washington’s policy
in Iraq and elsewhere was now being challenged by a much wider array of voices,
and in part this reflected the unprecedented resources progressive people were
pouring into election-related initiatives. By October we lacked the funds to put
out another issue. We announced that we were suspending publication for the time
being and would take another look at options for moving forward after the
November election. (See www.war-times.org for the text of our announcement.)


LESSONS FROM THIS PROJECT, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Looking back on these three intense years of antiwar activism, our Organizing
Committee believes War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ experience is rich in lessons
for the urgent work that still lies ahead: 

1. The framework of a post-9/11 EDUCATIONAL MOMENT – during which millions were
thinking anew about the U.S. role in the world – was a valuable insight and
crucial to War Times/Tiempo de Guerras so quickly finding a large audience. And
in our opinion, the antiwar movement still faces the challenge – and opportunity
– of reaching truly large numbers of people with information, analysis and
historical background. Print media can be one of the most valuable tools in our
outreach efforts because it allows us to BRING OUR MESSAGE TO OTHERS rather than
wait for people to come to us. Thinking and acting LARGE-SCALE is vital: War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ reach of 100,000-plus was a good start but we must get
to the point where our antiwar, anti-racist message gets put consistently in
front of a much larger audience.  

2. We believe it was important to aim War Times/Tiempo de Guerras especially at
the CONSTITUENCIES MOST IMPACTED by the “war on terrorism.” These sectors -
communities of color, immigrant communities, the Arab and Muslim populations,
workers and poor people – were and are most opposed to the Bush agenda and
crucial for building a powerful and stable antiwar movement. Of course other
sectors often could and did run ahead of these constituencies in terms of
visible activism (especially attendance at demonstrations) and the potential of
each of these must also be tapped to the full: students and youth, women, the
peace and civil liberties communities, progressive religious sector,
environmental activists. Also, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras made a point of
featuring the voices of VETERANS, MILITARY FAMILIES AND ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY
PERSONNEL WHO ARE OPPOSED TO THE WAR; these have a unique role to play and
amplifying their voices is a priority for the entire antiwar movement. 

3. Feedback from readers consistently emphasized that stressing the LINKAGES
between different aspects of the “war on terrorism” was a key strength of War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras. Our editorial policy considered the INTIMATE CONNECTION
BETWEEN RACISM AND WAR to be the most vital link to hone in on. It was also
important to keep the connections between the INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC
COMPONENTs of the Bush administration’s war program in view, and to incorporate
support for PALESTINIAN NATIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS into ongoing antiwar education
and mobilization.    

4. We learned that effectively getting our message across required speaking to
people on many levels, in different ways and in different languages, in a
non-preachy, non-didactic manner. Besides providing historical background, basic
information and analysis of week-to-week events, it is vital to put a HUMAN FACE
on the victims of US policies – in particular to combat demonization of “the
other” - and also to promote VOICES FROM TARGETED, DISPOSSESSED AND OPPRESSED
COMMUNITIES at home and abroad. War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ BILINGUAL CHARACTER
was of central importance to this project and ongoing production of materials in
Spanish and other languages seems to us an ongoing priority for the antiwar
movement.   

5. Both our efforts to get War Times/Tiempo de Guerras distributed as widely as
possible and our involvement in mobilizations/campaigns have reinforced our view
that a BROAD COALITION APPROACH and special efforts to provide a WELCOMING SPACE
FOR NEW PEOPLE must be cornerstones of the antiwar effort. Our eyes must be on
building a movement with the support of millions of people holding diverse
views. 

6. War Times/Tiempo de Guerras’ rapid expansion to reach tens of thousands of
readers, and also the financial difficulties which forced suspension of
publication this October, have underscored the point that the antiwar movement
needs STRONG, WELL-RESOURCED, AND BROAD-BASED
INSTITUTIONS/COALITIONS/ORGANIZATIONS.  These are essential to educate, mobilize
and conduct ongoing action campaigns on a truly large scale. At the present
time, we see building on the accomplishments of UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
(UFPJ) and strengthening UFPJ’s capacity in all areas as especially important. 

Looking ahead, we plan to continue producing bilingual outreach materials with
the same political character, target audience, and editorial mix as War
Times/Tiempo de Guerras. We do not have – and cannot foresee attaining in the
immediate future – the funds to continue as an in-print free tabloid. But with
current technology we can post leaflets and flyers on the web, and these can be
downloaded and reproduced for hand-to-hand distribution by organizers (as well
as forward via e-mail). We hope to cooperate with UFPJ and/or other
organizations/coalitions in crafting the most useful content and maximizing
distribution. 

We are eager to hear your ideas about this evaluation and plan. Please send us
your thoughts via the contact addresses below. It has been a privilege to work
with so many dedicated antiwar activists across the country who - under
tremendously difficult circumstances - have turned peace sentiment into a
powerful force in U.S. politics. We look forward to further work together with
you as the urgent struggle for peace and justice continues. 

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras Organizing Committee
c/o EBC, 1230 Market, PMB 409
San Francisco, CA 94102

e-mail: distribution at war-times.org 

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