The Big Issue North is shutting down next month, its demise blamed on reduced town centre footfall since the pandemic.
Increased print, energy and paper costs have also contributed to making Big Issue North “no longer financially viable”, its publishers said. A souvenir final edition will go on sale on 8 May, 30 years after the title first hit the streets.
From 15 May, Big Issue North vendors will sell the national magazine, which is produced in Glasgow. They can buy copies for £2 each, sell them for £4 and keep the profit.
A dedicated northern correspondent to help amplify the voices of marginalised communities in the region and contribute pieces to the national magazine, according to the Big Life Group, which publishes Big Issue North.
Big Issue North started in December 1992 as a Manchester supplement within the London-based Big Issue. The following year, it became an independently produced magazine, with staff based in Manchester, Liverpool and other northern cities.
It became well respected for its cultural coverage and its investigations into issues affecting the most vulnerable in society, as well as campaigns such as End Child Detention Now, which demanded an end to children being held in immigration detention in the UK.
The novelist Benjamin Myers was one of many public figures to mourn Big Issue North’s demise, saying its coverage of literature had “always been exceptional”.
The publishers said: “Since 1993, Big Issue North has been an independently produced magazine focusing on regional stories and profiling some of the biggest names across the northern cultural landscape. However, a decline in sales in the aftermath of the pandemic as town centre footfall decreased, alongside increased print, energy and paper costs, mean that continuing to produce Big Issue North is no longer financially viable.”
Fay Selvan, the chief executive of the Big Life Group, said: “We have explored a number of alternatives, but ultimately, ceasing production and offering the national Big Issue magazine to vendors in the north is the route that gives the best possible opportunity for the most people to earn an income and change their lives.”
Kevin Gopal, the editor of Big Issue North, said: “This is a sad moment for independent northern-based publishing and a sign of the difficult commercial outlook for much of the media industry.”
