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Repeat Of The Open Letter To John Bird Of The Big Issue

October 21, 2009

Open Letter To John Bird Of The Big Issue Some time ago, last year actually, we posted an open letter to the editor of The Big Issue magazine, John Bird, calling on him to improve the quality of his publication, becasue we felt that the people who were benefitting from it – the homeless – deserved better. Having spoken to some sellers of the Big Issue recently we found out that the quality of the publication has not really improved very much. In fact, as one homeless man who sells the magazine told us he never reads it because there’s nothing in it of any interest.

That is why we decided to repeat the open letter that had appeared here last year.

Dear Sir,

I have been buying The Big Issue for quite some time now, but it was only recently that I actually started reading it. Yes, not just buying for the sake of helping out the people who were selling the magazine on the streets, but actually having a glance through the pages and reading some of the articles. To get an idea of what your magazine was all about, that is.

Because you have been on the scene for many years now and because, as I’ve heard, there are now similar magazines published in other countries, including Russia, based on your pioneering concept. And it’s a great concept, I must say: putting out a magazine and allowing the homeless to make some money out of selling it. What can be not good about that?

But I have a point to make about the The Big Issue, well, actually several points which I wanted to share with you. I will start with the title: may be it would be better to call it Big Issue or A Big Issue? Because let’s be honest about it, homelessness is not really THE big issue, is it? The big issue is how a person deals with a crisis in his or hers life, and it might not be homelessness. It might be the loss of a job, bankruptcy, life threatening illness, death of loved ones, addiction to drink and drugs, although the last two I would probably qualify as self inflicted problems rather than life’s predicaments.

My point is that it can be many different things and they all become serious issues for people and the really big one is how they deal with them. Whether they blame everyone else for their troubles and expect others to bail them out or whether they stand firm and put up a fight and carry on regardless and get things sorted.

That is really THE big issue, isn’t it, and that’s what really matters.

This is the first point I wanted to make. The other concerns the editorial content of your magazine. I suspect that when you first launched it you thought that, as it was basically set up to help homeless people in London, you could stick to a simple format. No fancy stuff, no glossy covers, not too many articles, enough adverts to cover the costs of printing and, possibly, a big name giving an interview to attract attention. It was perfectly reasonable to start like that, considering that you probably didn’t have sufficient money then anyway.

But now, years later, this initial concept looks outdated. I think that the idea that people would read anything, as long as it’s a magazine that is supposed to highlight the problem of homelessness and benefit the homeless, is not exactly right. In fact, it should have been developed into a publication that could compete with any other mainstream magazine, and have really good, punchy articles in it and hard hitting reviews, and exclusive reports, and maybe even a bit of controversy. Because the one thing you should always avoid when you are trying to help people in desperate circumstances is to be seen as patronising. You know, as if implying in your case that as it is a magazine launched to help the homeless do not expect it to be some fancy publication.

Actually it should be a very good magazine, or at least strive to be very good.

And I think there should be more uplifting stories in your magazine, giving people hope that things can get better for them. Because stories like the one about the old man, who lay dead at his home for a year with no one giving a damn about him, do not really inspire hope, do they? Sure, they raise awareness about lonely old people, but if a homeless man reads it he might slip into a serious depression and may even consider suicide as an option.

And then there are these big names on the cover of The Big Issue, all those pop stars, who have nothing much to say and who talk about themselves and their small little worlds. They tell about their new albums and manage to say absolutely nothing of any interest to anyone, nothing at all. And they boast about their drinking and they swear a lot. And it all sounds pathetic, considering that there is no real substance in what they say.

Why don’t you ask these pop stars for once to do something that makes sense? Why don’t you ask them to play a gig and donate all the money to the homeless instead of blowing it on booze and drugs?

As for advertising, I honestly think it is not a good idea to promote charities that have nothing to do with the homeless in Britain, considering you being there to help the homeless. I am sure your advertising people can find other sources of revenue so that the magazine stays focused on the big issue at hand.

And one last final thought. Why don’t you offer a stake in your venture to all the homeless people, who register to sell you magazine on the streets? That might make them feel that they are part of something big, that they are not alone anymore. And that would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?

Yours faithfully,

Alexander Nekrassov

– End –

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