One year at the helm of The Big Issue

She continues, “With his 30 years' experience in publishing, he has injected new life into a magazine that reaches more than 50 000 readers and provides employment for an ever-increasing number of vendors."

Together with deputy editor Bronwen Dyke, design manager Justine Sibomana and some hardworking interns, Paul has revamped the magazine's editorial content and its overall look and feel - a makeover that saw the relaunch of the magazine at a bash at Spier last year.

More recently South African journalist Miriam Mannak earned The Big Issue kudos at the International Street Paper awards in Scotland. Out of the 120 submissions from 41 street papers, Big Issue SA's entry in the Best Feature Story category came fifth place. Mannak's article "Strawberry-flavoured Nightmare," exposed the harsh reality of tik drug addiction among school children on the Cape Flats.

“Considerable amount of local talent”

"There's a considerable amount of local talent here; we've got good writers and great interns," says Paul. "Given that we work with very little resources I think we produce an extraordinary magazine."

Paul's career in publishing began in 1975, when he moved to London and worked for Marshall Cavendish. After an absence of 20 years, he moved back to South Africa in 1996, and helped launch SACityLife, which became a successful television show on M-Net, as Big City - winning an Avanti award in 2001 - and later with e.tv as CityLife. During his editorship of The Property Magazine, it won the 2005 Philip Tyler Trophy for innovation in magazine publishing.

Today he has found his niche.

"Being editor of The Big Issue has been my greatest challenge at a very personal level because everything I do for the magazine has got to benefit the vendors, our shareholders. If I make a magazine that doesn't sell, someone goes hungry.

"But it's also a hell of a lot of fun making magazines. I'm constantly cultivating new ideas to keep the magazine growing, and talking to people about what they would do differently. I even brought in a journalist form ABC News, gave her a couple of magazines, and got her feedback - that always helps. I do it with local journalists as well.

Eye opener

It has been an eye opener for Paul how ready and willing people are to step up to the plate.

"The number of editors who make copy and images available to us for free is incredible. Even international magazines help us out, when they know what we're about and they've cleared it with their writers.

"There have even been photographers who have provided images for us for nothing, photographers like Eric Miller who shoots for Time and Newsweek. We can never thank them enough.

"In the future I would like to involve more of the community and business leaders as contributors."

Humbled

But while Paul is at the helm of the magazine, he is humbled by the hard work and dedication of the employees at The Big Issue.

"I work as part of a very young, but incredibly dedicated team who bring a lot of energy to the party, but the editorial department also forms part of a bigger picture of the organisation.

"I take my hat off to The Big Issue's social department that really does the hard groundwork with the vendors - counselling them and finding them permanent job - because a lot of them come from a background of abuse or domestic violence.

"I also have huge respect for The Big Issue's distribution team, who are pushing to get the magazine into vendors' hands and are making sure the vendors are selling," he says.

More recently, the magazine increased its distribution points to include the Northern Suburbs with the opening of a depot at the Bellville taxi rank, and is looking at getting vendors to sell the magazine at university campuses.

"I think it's a great move. I think any new markets we can open will be a benefit to our vendors. I'd like to see us double our vendor base, but that is also fairly scary because it means there are a lot more people out there who are in need," says Paul.

"But that they choose to sell The Big Issue means the vendors are more prepared to work than they are to beg, and I feel I've given them a product, which I am proud of, which is saleable and which is bought and read

"To this end, it's almost inexpressible what The Big Issue does for me as an individual."