News, opinion and resources for the North West media industry
-
This new initiative on Monday 18 June will allow owners and managers of... -
Several acquisitions in the media planning and buying business last... -
How-Do is trying to keep track of the drama and feature films which are... -
Our latest initiative, How-Do KnowledgeBank has launched on the site....
Gopal upbeat despite Big Issue sales slip
The Big Issue in the North saw year-on-year circulation fall by 16% in the second half of 2011, according to the latest figures from ABC.
The decline, to a circulation of 14,250, was slightly bigger than in London where the title lost 13% to 58,370.
Elsewhere in the region Wirral-based Newhall Publications saw a 9% decline in sales of its Candis title to 244,468. It became available on newsstands for the first time during the period.
Figures for Archant's Cheshire and Lancashire Life titles will be published at the end of the month. Owen Oyston's Lancashire magazine jumped 66% to 35,798.
The Big Issue's northern editor Kevin Gopal told How-Do: "The decline is in line with the other Big Issues, and we're obviously quite disappointed.
"Like many others we put it down to the decline in print media generally, and the recession.
"We did have quite a good Christmas though and we've got a fairly firm grip on costs which means hopefully we'll be around for quite a while yet to do what we maintain is an important role helping some of the most marginalised people earn an income."
The magazine, which is based in Manchester, has a small editorial and sales team of five which produces most of the content. Some material, such as film reviews, is shared among the Big Issue titles.
In Scotland the Big Issue saw a 24.7% circulation decline to 13,234.
Candis, a brand which has been around since the 60s, built up a large subscription following before going on general sale.
Newhall's chairman Andrew Douglas, said: “Although it is currently a tough market out there, we have invested heavily in the title and will continue to do do. We have a clear and defined strategy for the future of Candis, which we are in the process of implementing and is so far going as planned.”
Did you enjoy this article? Please share it!
Something to add? Then leave a comment below or email us now.
Search
When I first started selling the Big Issue 15 years ago, the Plymouth office was selling 5,500 a week. Nowadays, 1,100. John Bird; the Big Issue are solely responsible for that decline. They took their eye off the ball. Yes,some years ago, from my experience they stopped focusing on the needs of the homeless and instead, focused only on financial profit.
The Big Issue was, for a number of years, an important contributor to efforts to get homeless people back on their feet by providing them with a legitimate source of income, although many would argue that the vendor system also provided useful 'cover' for a small number of individuals intent on peddling more than a magazine.
The 'need' just is not there to the same degree, and punters are now realising that the vendor - probably talking into the latest, expensive blackberry, and drinking their 'Costa' whilst selling the latest issue - is perhaps not as much in need of help as they are themselves in the current economic climate.
In the very late 90's The Big Issue in the North was selling circ 70,000 copies each week, so this continuing, steep and near terminal decline exceeds industry trends. So to believe you can...."put it down to the decline in print media generally, and the recession" is akin to burying your head in the sand.