View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
April 4, 2002updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Editor quits Big Issue in Scotland after ‘worthy’ row

By Press Gazette

Barry: "staff had own agenda"

Nicola Barry has quit suddenly as editor of the The Big Issue in Scotland after staff refused to accept her ideas and drop the "worthy" coverage.

Barry, who joined the magazine last summer from the Aberdeen Press and Journal, said: "It was the most difficult eight months of my life but if you can’t take the people with you, if you can’t get the staff on your side, to keep going is utterly pointless."

Sources say there was a personality clash with certain staff members and disagreements over what was "funny". Barry said she was "bitterly disappointed" to be leaving.

"I’m not the sort of person who turns their back on something that is going well but I am not going to bash my head against a brick wall," she said.

"Staff had their own agenda and it wasn’t mine. They wanted the magazine to be worthy. I’d say it is a great pity for The Big Issue because circulation had gone up for the first time in five years, so I was doing something right." She added: "I went in there with the intention of being a nice editor who didn’t sack people and that is my big regret now."

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

At the time of her appointment, Barry said she wanted to introduce more humour, less froth, boost the investigative coverage and raise the profile of the elderly.

She praised the team and said she had no plans to make staff changes. She told Press Gazette in July: "I feel I’ve been preparing for this job all my career. I have always concentrated on social injustice." A Big Issue spokeswoman said: "Nicola has resigned and we wish her well in the future. She is extremely talented, it just didn’t work out."

By Ruth Addicott

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network