With media conglomerates snapping up independent weekly newspapers like popcorn, the role of "alternative press" is being filled by a proliferation of new voices, from Internet �zines to conventional print publications.

For the past decade, street newspapers, which cover city life from ground level, have been part of that new cutting edge. In 1996, they banded together to form the North American Street Newspaper Association, or NASNA. The group recently held its fourth annual conference in Cleveland.

NASNA members are a diverse group. Many started as programs in existing homeless service organizations, and some are used primarily to help people improve their lives. Others focus on covering issues under-reported by mainstream media, and see themselves as a voice for people ignored by society.

The papers are generally sold by low-income or homeless people who pay about 20 cents a copy and sell them on the streets for about a dollar, although many readers voluntarily give more. The steady money can help people survive on the streets or get into more stable situations.

But their effects go beyond that. "What blows me away about street newspapers is the impact they can have on a community," says Tim Harris, executive director of Seattle�s Real Change and NASNA chair. "We live in an extremely class-stratified society, where a middle-class person has no reason to relate to someone who isn�t middle-class." Mr. Harris says a recent survey showed that across the country, readers come from all walks of life, but college educated women aged 30-50 are over-represented. "That�s who we are reaching," says Mr. Harris. About 50 percent of street paper readers are homeowners.

"Street newspapers break down class barriers, they allow people to have an exchange that is not based on charity," he says. "It lets the vendor know that people care whether they live or die. For the reader, it�s a window into another reality."

Today�s street papers range from seat-of-the-pants operations with no paid staff and a few thousand circulation to papers like StreetWise in Chicago, with an annual budget of $750,000, a 10-person staff and a monthly circulation of 130,000. Some papers offer their vendors opportunities beyond work for the publication. StreetWise has a computer learning center, a writers group and a library for its vendors.

Advocates say street papers fill a void by covering issues ignored by other media. Coverage in Cleveland�s Homeless Grapevine of a lawsuit brought against the city by the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly "dumping" homeless people in isolated areas was invaluable, ACLU representatives said at the conference. The case was settled for less than $10,000, paid to three homeless plaintiffs�and a press statement saying Cleveland does not condone "the transportation of homeless persons or panhandlers against their will."

San Diego�s Street Light started precisely because the news media missed a story. Editor Anne Curo describes a protest during the 1996 Republican national convention, when 13 demonstrators were arrested. That day, the bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta "took up all the news�there was nothing about the arrests," says Mrs. Curo. "We decided we needed our own paper."

Street Light has been putting out about 8,000 copies a month with an all-volunteer staff since February of 1997. Mrs. Curo and her husband do a lot of the editing and layout, but depend on a core group of writers for much of the content. Recently, the paper has been covering alleged abuses at a local homeless shelter.

NASNA, with 40 members in the U.S. and Canada, hopes to expand the number of street papers and help existing ones. Current plans include starting a wire service so members can publish stories from other cities, and a mentoring system that will give start-ups a chance to learn from the mistakes of older papers.

Michael Stoops, co-founder of NASNA and organizer for the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington D.C., says there are plans there for a paper affiliated with Chicago�s StreetWise.