The Big Issue

The Big Issue is a British weekly street newspaper and social enterprise founded in September 1991 by John Bird and Gordon Roddick. It is sold by people experiencing homelessness or financial insecurity, who earn an income by buying magazines at a discounted wholesale price and selling them in public spaces.

The publication was created in response to rising levels of homelessness in the United Kingdom in the 1990s, and was modelled on Street News, a newspaper sold by homeless vendors in New York City. It is now the world's most widely circulated street newspaper.