THE BIG ISSUE CELEBRATES 350 EDITIONS ON THE STREETS

Prepared by: Sunny Oliver-Bennetts, The Big Issue
Australia’s best known street magazine, The Big Issue, celebrates its 350th edition this fortnight – 84 of those with Walkley Award-winning journalist and author Alan Attwood at the helm.

Since its launch on the steps of Flinders St Station in Melbourne in June 1996, The Big Issue vendors in Australia have sold more than 5.5 million magazines, with $9.5 million going into the pockets of homeless and unemployed people.

After working as a journalist and US correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers, Walkley Award-winning journalist and author Alan Attwood came on board as a Columnist with The Big Issue in 2003, eventually taking over as Editor in November 2006.

“I first became interested in the magazine, after a quarter-century in mainstream media, because it struck me as a wonderfully simple and practical idea,” Attwood says.

In Attwood’s three years with The Big Issue he has formed close bonds with many of the vendors. Once a fortnight in Melbourne, at a barbeque for vendors, he presents the latest edition of the magazine to those that sell it and regularly engages with the vendors to obtain their opinions on what they and readers want.

Attwood’s editorial in the 350th ‘3D special’ edition of The Big Issue reflects on the evolution of computer technology, reflecting on the creation, in the mid-1950s, of a ‘350’ disc storage unit by IBM.

“As our story in this edition makes clear, 350 isn’t a celebrated number – unlike, say, 21 or 100 – but to an enterprise like this one it’s significant, especially to the men and women who sell it.”