Wake-Up Call: Read all about it

It's been a bad year for newspapers, with cities acorss the country losing important institutions like the Rocky Mountain News. But it's been a very good year for homeless newspapers, judging from the entries in the first annual North American Street Newspaper Association Newspaper Awards.

I was lucky enough to be one of the judges of that contest, which included work from twenty street newspapers across North America. Staffers from those papers are in Denver right now for an annual conference at the University of Denver, this year titled "Navigating the Recession; Street Papers More Relevant Than Ever."

The Denver VOICE, one member of the group, is so relevant -- both for its content and its distribution system, which puts at least $16,000 a month into the hands of the homeless community -- that Westword awarded it a 2009 Mastermind Award. The VOICE is also a finalist in seven categories in the NASNA awards, which will be announced at a dinner tonight.

Read all about it here on Monday.