Target audienceFrom analysing the front cover of the magazine, I concluded that The Big Issue’s audience isn’t very

specific; they are aiming at the public in general. It appeared to be very neutral in its subject matters and presentation and most other aspects.

• ‘We produce a weekly entertainment and current affairs magazine which vendors buy from us for £1 and sell to the public for £2’

• ‘Altered public perceptions ‘• These quotes taken from the website show that their target audience is mostly ‘the public’• On the readership section of the website it says:• ‘A CULTURALLY ENGAGED, SOCIALLY AWARE AUDIENCE –THE ULTIMATE CONSUMERS WITH A

CONSCIENCE!’• Although this doesn’t necessarily claim this is their target audience, the subject matter and

language used in the magazine shows that it aims to appeal to ‘culturally engaged’ and ‘socially aware’ people.

• I also found this quote on the southwest Big Issue website: • ‘In short, The Big Issue delivers a highly sought after audience of• students, graduates and those in the market for courses and• self-improvement.’• In conclusion the big issue aims at educated and cultured people.

The Big Issue has a readership of 646,000

people every week (according to the NRS)

Of this number 56% are female and 44% are male

75% of the readership are ABC1. This means that they are of upper middle class,

middle class and lower middle class

41% of the Big Issue’s readers work full time and

nearly 1/3 of the readers are students

The Big Issue readership has a denser population of

Main Shoppers than readers of the Independent on

Sunday, Independent on Saturday, Independent,

Guardian, Times and Telegraph

The Readership The Big Issue contains many different articles. There is an interview with Danny Boyle and an article about how the political landscape of Britain has changed in 2010. The reader would need to be interested in these types of articles, which suggests that the readership has an interest in current affairs. Also, the magazine has music, book and theatre reviews. This tells us that the readers of the Big Issue are interested in arts and culture. This is supported by the fact that Big Issue reader ‘visit the theatre a total of 1.4M times a year.

Advertising• Charities are the biggest part of the advertisement in ‘The Big issue’

with readers spending £78 each on charity per year. Other advertisements also include:

• Fairtrade• Pet insurance• Vitamins• ‘How to change your life in 7 steps’ book• The EcoStore• Tucantravel• London to Paris bike ride• Many of these are environmentally friendly adverts, all aimed at

helping people in one way or another. This is expected from this kind of magazine as it is being initially sold by a homeless person.

The Big Issue distribution methods • The Big Issue is sold by vendors that are offered this job to help them get money

as these people will normally start off being homeless. They offer the opportunity to these people for them to earn a fair, justifiable income by selling a magazine to the general public.

• The Big Issue in Scotland got the help from teens aged 13-17 to help with a special edition project and managed to distribute more than 300,000 copies of the Wee Issue to secondary school pupils in this Big Lottery Fund-backed initiative.

• The Big issue is distributed in middle class areas as these are the target audience. • They produce a weekly entertainment and current affairs magazine which vendors

buy from us for £1 and sell to the public for £2, keeping £1 for themselves.

Funding• The big issues has its own investment company:• ‘Big Issue Invest is a specialised provider of finance to social enterprises or trading arms

of charities that are finding business solutions that create social and environmental transformation.

• Part of The Big Issue group of companies, it is led by social entrepreneurs and experienced social financiers. As a social enterprise itself, Big Issue Invest pays any dividends generated up to its parent, The Big Issue, also a social enterprise with a charitable arm, The Big Issue Foundation.’

• ‘The Big Issue Foundation relies heavily on voluntary support. We are fortunate to benefit from the loyalty and generosity of a number of Trusts and Foundations, each making a valuable contribution to the costs of funding the projects and skilled staff we support.

A donation from a Trust or Foundation can be dedicated to a specific project or service, or a particular location where the work of The Foundation is based. Income from Trusts and Foundations is crucial in maintaining our commitment to our funding, without this support we would not be able to provide crucial support to vendors across the UK.’

The Big Issue Profits

• The Big Issue has been described as one of the most successful street newspapers worldwide, selling over 300,000 copies a week and listed as the third favourite newspaper of young British people (age from 15 to 24) in 2001.

• There are 5 localised editions of the magazine sold throughout the United Kingdom and vendors buy The Big Issue for £1.00

and sell it for £2.00. The magazine is also produced and sold in Australia, the Republic of Ireland, South Korea, South Africa, Japan, Namibia, Kenya, Malawi and Taiwan. All vendors receive training, sign a code of conduct, and can be identified by badges which include their photo and vendor number.

The founder of The Big Issue•

The Big Issue was launched in 1991 by Gordon Roddick and John Bird in response to the growing number of rough sleepers on the streets of London. Roddick, who also co-founded The Body Shop, was inspired by a newspaper called Street News, which was sold on the streets of New York. Upon his return from America he enlisted the help of John Bird, who had experience in the print trade and who had himself slept rough. The two believed that the key to solving the problem of homelessness lay in helping people to help themselves, and were therefore determined to offer a legitimate alternative to begging.

• John Bird was born in Notting Hill, London to a poor London Irish family. He became homeless at the age of five, resided in an orphanage between the ages of seven and ten, and went into prison in his teenage years. He slept rough on the streets of London and returned to prison a number of times in his late twenties.

• Gordon Roddick had a highly contrasting early life. He was born in Scotland in 1942, and trained at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, England. Tin mining, sheep farming in Australia and canoeing down the Amazon all featured in his life before the age of 26, when he met and married Anita Perella.

• John Bird, when talking in an interview about how the two men met, was quoted as saying; ‘I met Gordon in a pub called Paddy's Bar in 1967. I was in Edinburgh to escape the English police: I was being sought for petty offences like incurring a debt through fraud, because I'd been having meals in restaurants and not paying for them. I was leading a shadowy existence and kipping rough, and Paddy's Bar was like my front room.’