PRESS RELEASE: ‘Street' paper sales surge 10%

A GLOBAL network of papers and magazines aimed at lifting homeless people out of poverty is bucking the overall slump in worldwide print sales, with a collective 10 per cent rise in circulation over the past year.

Titles within the International Network of Street Papers (INSP), in some countries sold under the ‘Big Issue' brand, are all sold by homeless vendors. In September this year they had combined sales of 1.51 million, compared to 1.37m a year earlier.

Readership of the 115 titles within the group, spread across 40 countries, has now hit 5.27 million against 4.79m a year ago.

The best results were recorded in North America (+36 per cent) and Europe (+6.4 per cent).

INSP's annual strategy meeting

All INSP staff and board members (pictured below) took part in a dynamic, annual strategy meeting in Glasgow, 15th - 18th November. The INSP board meets each month by telephone conference with the Executive Director Lisa Maclean and twice each year for a face-to-face meeting in Glasgow, or as part of the annual conference. The five board members from Canada, USA, South Africa, Austria and Russia joined the staff team to review the work and finances for 2009 - 2010; evaluate projects, partnerships and strategies; and set INSP's priorities for 2011.

The board were also introduced to a variety of INSP partners, including BBC Scotland, Herald & Times Group, Press Association and the Radisson Hotel. INSP Chairperson, Serge Lareault joined staff for an additional 2 days, along with Richard Turgeon, L'Itineraire's Marketing and Communications Director, to discuss the next phase of INSP's exciting Global Advertising Project. Thanks to Glasgow's Mint Hotel (formerly ‘City Inn') for sponsoring Serge and Richard's visit.