Big Issue in Scotland magazine sees single story become web wonder

A SINGLE story last week on the recently re-launched website of the Big Issue in Scotland magazine has attracted four times as many visitors as the website had notched up througout the whole of last month.

As clear an illustration of the global potential of some stories, the Big Issue carried a news item where US President, Barack Obama, was described as a cross between former president, Franklin D. Roosevelt and actor, Denzel Washington.

It followed an interview with former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, who said the comparison had been made two years ago by Obama’s vice-president, Joe Biden.

The interest in the story was such that it was picked up by various political blogs based in the US, plus US TV channel, NBC.

Says the magazine’s editor, Paul McNamee: “We’re still a growing site, working out ways of driving traffic to us. In 36 hours, that single story resulted in four times as many visitors as we had in March. We also got a lot of comments from the US.”