Readers will be able to buy online access to the magazine directly from vendors in the form of a digital access card. 

We want to give our readers a choice as to how you read our magazine in the future – whether it’s in print or digital format.

Our digital version will cost $6 – the same as the print copy – with vendors continuing to earn $3 from every sale.

If you choose to buy the digital edition from your vendor, you will receive a printed card with a unique access code that allows you to view the magazine online. The digital version will feature the same great content as the print copy and will give you the flexibility to view it on your desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.

We’re pleased to be one of the first street papers in the world to offer a digital edition to our customers and hope it gives readers more reading flexibility while still supporting our vendors on the street.

Thanks to our readers, vendors across Australia have already sold eight million copies of The Big Issue magazine since 1996, earning more than $16 million in income.

To view a sample of our digital edition or set up your account, visit http://digital.thebigissue.org.au

You can also visit our Digital FAQ page here.

Join our research study to help us understand what you want from The Big Issue, so that we can continue to bring you a great read every fortnight.

Complete our national online survey and you’ll have the chance to enter The Big Issue competition to win a $1,000 Australian Ethical investment! 

The survey will take about 10 to 15 minutes to complete - click here to take part.

Click here to read the full terms and conditions.

Thanks!

Some big names in Australian literature have featured in our past fiction editions, including Christos Tsiolkas, Charlotte Wood, Chris Womersley, Frank Moorhouse and Margo Lanagan. Last year, our fiction edition was even launched by the former UK Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, at the Melbourne Writers Festival.

This year, all submissions will be judged ‘blind’, with no names attached. We are inviting all writers – of whatever age, established, emerging, or just keen to have a crack – to send us stories. This year’s theme is as simple as it is tantalising: Make Me Smile.

Stories must be no longer than 2500 words. To submit, send two printed (not electronic) copies of your entry to: Fiction Edition, The Big Issue, GPO Box 4911, Melbourne 3001. Make sure your name and details are included on a removable coversheet.

Closing date for entries is 31 May 2013.

Bryant, who will be one of the chefs cooking at the annual fundraiser on July 14, prepared the special preview lunch for magazine sellers at the Adelaide Central Market.

The Big Lunch has raised more than $50,000 for The Big Issue since 2011, helping to support vulnerable men and women.

Bryant will team up with former MasterChef contestant Callum Hann and Hilton Adelaide Executive Chef Dennis Leslie to prepare the menu for The Big Lunch.

The July event will again be held at the Adelaide Central Market, with diners seated at long tables between the market stalls.

Tickets to The Big Lunch on July 14 cost $130 per person or $1200 for a table of 10. More details here.

Original artworks and special items donated by artists and celebrities will be auctioned off to the highest bidders on October 31.

Bernie Hobbs, from ABC's The New Inventors, has already donated to the cause and we're hoping that other high profile Australians get on board by donating a piece of art or loved possession to feature in the auction.

The last Big Art auction helped raise almost $15,000 and we’re expecting this year's event to be an even bigger success.

The 2013 Big Art will centre on the theme of what makes someone’s home a ‘home’. The exhibition will feature a 'garage sale' installation made up of treasured items donated by celebrities from their home.

Anyone interested in supporting this event should contact Queensland Operations Manager Cassandra Roland on (07) 3036 4421 or email croland@bigissue.com.au

The last Big Art featured original artworks donated by celebrities and artists including Braidy Hughes (top), and David Hinchliffe, Justin Overell and Nick Earls (below).

The Big Art will be held at the Ross Street Studio in Newstead on October 31.

Artworks by David Hinchliffe (left) and Justin Overell

Creation by Nick Earls

The Cup aims to raise awareness of our Community Street Soccer Program - a federally funded initiative that supports homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged people around the country.

More than 5000 people have taken part in the program since it was launched in 2007, with many reporting positive changes in their lives as a result of their participation.

Participants will test their skills against politicians and parliamentarian staff in a friendly round-robin tournament on an inflatable floating pitch.

The Parliamentarian Street Soccer Cup will be played on Senate Oval from 6.45-8am on Thursday, March 14.

We employ women experiencing issues such as homelessness, long-term unemployment and disability to pack subscription copies of our magazine, giving them an income and access to training and support.

The initiative – known as the Women’s Subscription Enterprise – offers vulnerable women an alternative to selling the magazine on the streets. It also allows our magazine to be delivered to business and corporate offices and to readers who don’t live or work in areas where vendors sell magazines.

The women pack magazines in a safe, female-only work space, where they are supported by staff and given opportunities to expand their job and life skills. Many have gone on to complete accredited training and several have secured mainstream employment. For every 100 subscriptions sold, 1 woman is employed through the enterprise.

A subscription to The Big Issue costs just $12.40 a month and can make an enormous difference to the lives of women. More than 100 women have been employed so far and, with your help, we can ensure even more women are given the opportunity to build a better future.

Click here to buy a subscription for your home or office.

Well-known personalities including Andrew Denton, comedian Colin Lane and the lord mayors of Melbourne and Adelaide teamed up with vendors to sell magazines on the streets.

More than 28,000 people sell street papers in 40 countries around the world each year, including over 500 in Australia.

The week included an international program of events and activities celebrating street paper vendors, championing their entrepreneurial spirit and challenging perceptions of poverty and homelessness.

See Adelaide Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood in action as he competes to sell more magazines than Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle. View the video here.

Thanks to a partnership with Tropfest, our vendors will sell magazines at festival venues in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. That means you’ll get the opportunity to see some great short films AND buy our mag. Win-win!

The free outdoor event will screen 16 short films selected from more than 600 entries.

Look out for vendors at the following Tropfest locations:
• The Domain, Sydney
• Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne
• Commonwealth Park, Parkes, Canberra

See more details about the event here. We hope to see you there.

The grand final saw Queensland narrowly defeat ACT 8-7, following two days of fast-paced competition. The tournament brought together more than 50 homeless and disadvantaged men and women from around the country in a show of sportsmanship and team spirit.

Minister for Sport Kate Lundy and Minister for Social Inclusion Mark Butler were on hand to congratulate participants and present awards.

The National Championships capped off 11 days of football action on our floating pitch at Cockle Bay, which brought together more than 1000 players from all walks of life.
The festival included competitions for juniors, corporate and government agency teams, politicians and media personalities.

View scores from the National Championships and other festival tournaments here.

The event will return next year. Stay tuned for details here on how you can get involved.

The event - an initiative of Qantas and OzHarvest – aims to create awareness about food security and homelessness, while raising funds for The Big Issue, OzHarvest and ONE80TC.

CEOs, including The Big Issue CEO Steven Persson, will be grouped into teams and paired with celebrated chefs from Australia’s top kitchens, cooking for 1000 people in need in Sydney.

The inaugural 2012 CEO CookOff brought together more than 130 CEOs and business leaders from around the country and 30 celebrity chefs, raising $1m.

CEO registrations for this year’s event are still open. For details visit www.ceocookoff.com.au.

The Big Idea asked university students to come up with a social enterprise that could provide employment to people unable to access mainstream jobs in a similar way to our fortnightly street magazine and other social enterprises.

Four shortlisted teams underwent judging on December 4 by a panel of high-profile business and industry leaders including Simon McKeon, Natasha Stott Despoja and Cheryl Kernot.

The winning team's social enterprise idea involved setting up mobile bike storage facilities. This idea would see homeless and disadvantaged people work as bike attendants assisting with the storage and maintenance of bicycles.

Other shortlisted ideas included:
• Training homeless and disadvantaged people to undertake tasks outsourced by organisations and individuals such as cleaning and furniture removal
• Employing marginalised people to prepare and pack healthy lunch packs for school canteens and supermarkets
• Employing marginalised youth and supporting Indigenous communities through a coffee business

"We want to congratulate the winning team and finalists, who all put enormous effort into their entries," National Operations Manager Sally Hines said.

“It's wonderful to see the next generation of leaders come up with new ideas for the future."

The competition ran as a pilot at the University of New South Wales and Swinburne University of Technology during Semester 2. It involved a series of lectures, workshops and webinars to help students, working in teams, develop their social enterprise ideas.

Ms Hines said The Big Issue would now assess the winning concept, as well as entries by other finalists, to determine the feasibility of implementing a new social enterprise.

Six universities have already signed up for next year’s competition: The University of Melbourne, University of Western Sydney, University of Queensland, Murdoch University, La Trobe University and Flinders University.

Limited places are still available for 2013. To find out how your university can be involved, click here.

Congratulations to the winning team: Vera-Min Stephenson, Alan Jackson, Jane Hwei Ying Loh, Yuyang Liu and Thanh Hien Thi Tran.

The Big Idea is proudly supported by NAB through its commitment to education and helping young people realise their potential.

View photos from the event here.
 

It features cartoons by Andrew Weldon and illustrations by other Big Issue artists, not to mention lots of messages from our vendors. Best of all, vendors keep $2.50 from every calendar they sell.

Make sure you grab a copy from your local vendor before they sell out.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr delivered the keynote address at the event, which aimed to highlight the issues faced by homeless and disadvantaged women in Australia and abroad.

Senator Carr described the importance of Australian aid for women and girls experiencing poverty around the world and the need to take action to address the causes of women’s homelessness and disadvantage in Australia, including domestic violence.

He said providing economic empowerment to women was critical to reversing the cycle of poverty.

At The Big Issue, we’re tackling the problem through our Women’s Subscription Enterprise, which provides job opportunities to vulnerable women through subscription sales to our magazine.

The women sort and pack the magazines for dispatch to subscribers, giving them an income and access to accredited training and support.

More than 200 people attended The Big Conversation, which was hosted by the Macquarie Group Foundation.

See more photos from The Big Conversation here.

WA Child Protection Minister Robyn McSweeney and Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington took to the streets of Albany on October 26 to sell the first copies of the mag.

In Brisbane, three mayors took part in a selling challenge from October 16-17 to mark the magazines launch in Logan and raise the profile of vendors in QLD.

Anyone interested in buying or selling the magazine in these areas should contact the relevant state office.

Franco writes from the set of his new movie The Apocalypse on the perils of playing a fictional version of himself and the end of the world.

He joins commissioned authors James Bradley, Margo Lanagan, Tony Birch and Sophie Cunningham, who have also written new stories for the special edition. A further six stories have been selected from more than 400 open entries.

Fiction edition co-editor Chris Flynn – who is The Big Issue’s Books Editor – said the opportunity to have Franco involved came up while he was writing on a blog the Hollywood star contributed to.

“I asked if he’d be interested in writing a piece for us and he agreed straight away,” Flynn said. “Despite doing a million and one things, he made time for us – it’s a real boost for the magazine.”

The fiction edition is on sale until September 7.

The 16-week ‘Success for Life’ Program, run by Juno Consulting, gave women the opportunity to complete a Certificate I in Vocational Training and Certificate III in Business. Staff from NAB mentored the women, helping them set goals ranging from looking for jobs to learning basic computer skills.

The Women’s Subscription Enterprise provides employment to homeless, marginalised and disadvantaged women through the sale of subscriptions to The Big Issue magazine. It also offers training and mentoring opportunities through programs such as the Success for Life Program.

21 women graduated from the program.

Ms Bryce helped women from our Women's Subscription Enterprise pack magazines and even took out a subscription herself to support the initiative. 

The Women's Subscription Enterprise was launched in Melbourne in 2010 to provide job opportunities for homeless and disadvantaged women through the sale of The Big Issue magazine subscriptions. It now operates in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide and recently employed its 100th woman.  The visit provided a great opportunity for Ms Bryce to hear from the women and learn about their work.

The Big Issue CEO Steven Persson said it was a privilege to have the Governor-General visit and show her support for the Women's Subscription Enterprise.