About bodo

bodo

bodo — Das Straßenmagazin — is the street magazine for Dortmund, Bochum, and surroundings, published monthly since February 1995 by the association bodo e.V. in Dortmund. Sold by people in difficult social situations on the streets of Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, and Herne, the magazine is the lobby for homeless and socially disadvantaged people: the sale is the low-threshold employment offer that gives a chance when other forms of employment are temporarily out of the question. With a monthly circulation of 20,000 copies and more than 40,000 readers, over 100 vendors offer bodo across the Ruhr cities. Under editor-in-chief Bastian Pütter, the editorial team and the region's journalists produce the magazine — the region's cross-section with the social and cultural focuses — while the vendors contribute the first-hand information on homelessness, addiction, and poverty.

Overview

The street magazine is the social work as medium: the vendors — people in difficult social situations — sell the magazine on the street, keeping half of the 3.50-euro street price. The low-threshold employment — the project's social-work core — deserves its programmatic explanation. The "niedrigschwelliges Beschäftigungsangebot" (low-threshold employment offer) means the work without the barriers: no application, no qualifications, no fixed hours — the vendor takes the magazines and sells them, keeping half the price. For people in difficult social situations — the homeless, the addicted, the long-term unemployed — for whom other employment forms are "vorübergehend nicht in Frage kommen" (temporarily out of the question), this is the first step: the daily structure, the customer contact, the earned money, and the self-confidence. The goal — the "Wiedereingliederung in reguläre Beschäftigungsverhältnisse" (reintegration into regular employment) — makes the street sale the transitional labor market: not the permanent job but the bridge. The vendors' editorial contributions — the first-hand information on homelessness, addiction, and poverty — add the participation: the sellers as the co-authors, the affected as the experts. The vendors actively contribute to their street magazine, delivering the first-hand information on the topics of homelessness, addiction, and poverty — the affected people's perspective as the editorial resource.

The magazine's program — the region's cross-section with the social and cultural focuses — pairs the professional journalism with the street's voices: the social reporting on the Ruhr's poverty, the cultural coverage of the region's life, and the vendors' contributions. The readership — the 40,000-plus readers — buys the magazine on the street: the Dortmund and Bochum passersby supporting the vendors and reading the region's social journalism. The bodo e.V. association — the Dortmund-based publisher — runs the project as the social enterprise: the magazine sale as the employment, the journalism as the lobby.

History

bodo appeared in February 1995 — in the mid-1990s founding wave of German street papers that followed Cologne's BankExpress (1992), Munich's BISS and Hamburg's Hinz&Kunzt (1993). The Ruhr region — the coal-and-steel region in structural transformation, with its homelessness and its social fractures — was the natural ground: the Dortmund-Bochum street magazine for the region's difficult social situations. The association bodo e.V. in Dortmund became the publisher: the social-work organization running the magazine as its employment project.

The Ruhr region gives bodo its social geography. Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, Herne — the five vendor cities span the eastern Ruhr: the former coal-and-steel cities with the structural-change scars, the Nordstadt poverty, the station-district scenes. The magazine's regional cross-section — the social and cultural focuses — documents this region: the homelessness at the Hauptbahnhof, the addiction in the Nordstadt, the poverty in the Plattenbau quarters, alongside the cultural life — the theaters, the football, the subcultures. The 1995 founding — the mid-1990s, when the coal crisis's social consequences peaked — placed the project in the region's hardest years. The three decades since — through the Hartz IV era, the 2015 migration, and the current housing emergency — kept the social mission current: the Ruhr's difficult social situations as the magazine's permanent beat. The vendors' first-hand contributions — the homelessness, the addiction, the poverty told from inside — are the region's social reportage at its most direct. The vendor network — over 100 vendors in Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, and Herne — grew into the region's street-magazine infrastructure. The editorial continuity — the editor-in-chief Bastian Pütter, the editorial team, and the region's journalists — maintained the monthly rhythm: the region's cross-section, month after month, for thirty years.

Coverage and Content

The monthly magazine covers the region from the social perspective. The social reporting treats the homelessness, the addiction, and the poverty: the Ruhr cities' social situations, the aid systems, and the political debates. The vendors' contributions deliver the first-hand accounts: the life in difficult situations, told by those living it. The cultural coverage presents the region's cross-section: the Dortmund and Bochum culture, the events, and the scenes. The regional reporting follows the Ruhr's developments: the cities' politics, the structural change, and the everyday life.

The magazine's journalism serves the dual mission: informing the readers about the region's social reality and giving the vendors the dignified work and the voice. The lobby function — the project understanding itself as the homeless and socially disadvantaged people's lobby — shapes the editorial line: the advocacy journalism for the marginalized, the first-hand information against the stereotypes. The 40,000 readers' purchase — the 3.50 euros, half to the vendor — funds both the employment and the journalism.

Organization and Ownership

bodo is published by the association bodo e.V., Dortmund. The editor-in-chief is Bastian Pütter. The editorial team and the region's journalists produce the monthly magazine; the vendors — over 100 in Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, and Herne — sell it on the street and contribute the first-hand content.

Commercially, the magazine follows the street-paper model: the vendors buy each copy and sell it for 3.50 euros, keeping half — the low-threshold employment financed by the readers' purchase. The association's social-work infrastructure — the vendor support, the employment organization — runs on the magazine's economics and the donations. The German street-paper landscape positions bodo among the regionals. The 1992–1995 founding wave created the more-than-thirty local papers: Cologne's Draussenseiter (as BankExpress, Germany's oldest), Munich's BISS, Hamburg's Hinz&Kunzt, and the Ruhr's bodo — each serving its city or region. The nationals among them — Hinz&Kunzt's 57,000, fiftyfifty's 60,000 — dwarf the regionals; bodo's 20,000 monthly copies and 40,000 readers make it the Ruhr's street-magazine voice: smaller than the Hamburg and Düsseldorf giants, but the eastern Ruhr's own. The multi-city model — Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, Herne under the one title — is the regional answer to the single-city papers: the Ruhr's polycentric geography (no one dominant center) requiring the network. The bodo e.V. — the Dortmund association as the publisher — runs the project with the social-work professionalism: the vendor support, the editorial production, and the lobby work as the integrated social enterprise.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is bodoev.de, the association's portal carrying the magazine's information, the vendor and donation channels, and the project's presentation. The digital presence serves the street magazine's specific needs: the readers finding the project, the donors supporting the association, and the public learning about the social mission.

The digital strategy follows the social-enterprise logic: the print monthly for the street sale — the vendors' workplace in the five Ruhr cities — the website for the information and the support channels. As the Ruhr's street magazine — from the February 1995 founding through three decades to the current monthly — bodo remains the region's social lobby in print: the magazine the vendors sell, the voices they contribute, the employment that structures their days — monthly on the streets of Dortmund, Bochum, Unna, Witten, and Herne, always at bodoev.de.