Founded in 1991 by john Bird and Gordon Riddick who have been friends since university.
They launched the magazine to dismantle poverty to create opportunity for homeless people.
The magazine have helped more than 92,000 vendors earn £115 million. A vendor would be a homeless person who is selling the magazine.
Vendors bought for £1.25 who then sell the magazine for £2.50.
In 1995 the big issue foundation was founded for additional support vendors and service to help them address their issue of homeless.
Adverts:
Papa johns
Tesco mobole
Redcross
Crisis
Save the trees
The body shop provided capital to the equivalent of £50,000, which helped them publish the magazine.
The magazine was initially published every month but became weekly as the magazine had gained success.
In 2001, the magazine sold 300,000 copies every week but this reduced to 125,00 in 2011.
In January 2012 the magazine relaunched with an increase focus on campaigning and political journalism which helped to increase the cover price.
In 2016, the Big Issue Magazine celebrated surpassing 200 million magazine sales.
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