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 | | Friday, 7 September, 2001, 15:46 GMT 16:46 UK Decade against the odds  When it was launched few people in the media business thought the Big Issue would last for 10 issues - let alone 10 years. Here Gibby Zobel and Max Daly of the magazine's news team reveal the secret of their success. Even after 10 years being sold on the streets of the UK, many people think the Big Issue magazine is about homelessness. It's not. It just happens to be sold by homeless people. If it was only about homelessness no-one would buy it. Vendors would have to get another job. From the Streets Since The Big Issue's start as a cobbled-together monthly in 1991, the magazine has grown to become the most popular weekly current affairs magazine in the UK, with sales of 250,000 and a readership of one million. The magazine, costing �1 (60p of which goes to the vendor), gives a voice to people and issues that do not have one in the mainstream press.
The Big Issue's London HQ houses the magazine's production, the Big Issue Foundation charity and vendor services all on two floors - Canary Wharf it ain't. The magazine's strapline, "Coming Up From The Streets" is indicative of the way the magazine keeps an ear close to the ground. Values We were among the first to report on emerging issues like anti-globalisation, GM crops, asylum and the futile "war on drugs". Our core values of social justice help set our own agenda. We cannot rely on press releases, press conferences and what comes in on the wires: the kind of news that is dumped on most journalists whether they like it or not.
Instead the Big Issue practises a more investigative type of journalism, similar in some ways to the Mirror and Sunday Times of the 70s, or to the odd Sunday paper article today. This sort of investigative, committed journalism has all but died in cash-strapped identikit national newsrooms and on entertainment-led TV channels. Because of this, national papers regularly follow up our stories days or weeks we first print them. "Pick Up Meter" We used to have a scrawled "pickup-o-meter" on our newsroom whiteboard - tracking all the stories the national press had "picked up" from our pages. The meter is gone now - our stories were lifted so often that we kept running out of space. Our scoops have included stories on the dangers of nanotechnology, pensioners taking crack, Labour funding animal testing, teenage contract killers, children abusing their parents. The campaigning edge is crucial. Our news is not to be consumed but to be acted upon. If we aren't running a multi-issue campaign - such as scrapping asylum vouchers, or (the successful) call to release charity workers jailed under crazy drug laws - you'll find a phone number or website to get involved and informed. But we remain politically neutral - our mission is to reflect how policy is impacting on real lives. And the Big Issue is a unique social movement, and a rare and precious home to a free press. Coming up from the Streets - The story of the Big Issue, by Tessa Swithinbank, is published by Earthscan on 1 September 2001 | | See also:  Top UK stories now:  Links to more UK stories are at the foot of the page. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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