TNT Magazine is a free magazine published in the United Kingdom and in Australia and New Zealand.
The UK magazine started in 1983 by Ghadir Razuki, and was the first magazine to reach readers via distribution bins in key areas across London. It was also available from pubs, hostels, travel agents and, later, internet cafes. The Australian and New Zealand versions follow the same distribution methods.
In the UK, TNT Magazine is aimed at Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans living, working and travelling in the UK (though mostly in London). In Australia, the magazine is for British, Irish, European and, increasingly, North American travellers.
The magazines focus on travel, jobs, tips on living in London (UK mag) and Australasia (Australia + New Zealand), accommodation and news and sport from home.
TNT UK also publishes a guide to the UK and Ireland for Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans planning to move to the UK and Ireland. TNT Downunder produces a similar annual title targeting those wanting to travel (and in many cases move) to Australia, New Zealand + Fiji.
TNT Publishing, which owns the UK magazine, also owns South African Times and South African Times.co.uk[1], and brings out quarterly teaching and finance directories, among other ad-hoc supplements.
The website [2]TNT Magazine is linked to the UK magazine, and was relaunched in October 2008 after existing under various other URLs. There is also [3]TNT Jobs - a standalone jobs board which offers jobs in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
TNT also runs regular travel and recruitment exhibitions [4] for its readers, as well as an annual Travel Writing and Photography Awards competition.
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TNT Magazine was founded in 1983 by Ali and Ghadir Razuki, two Iraqi brothers. Their family had left Iraq to the UK in 1968 when Saddam Hussein's government initially came into power. The two brothers regularly socialised with Australians and New Zealanders and after recognising the difficulty their friends faced in getting regular news and sport updates from home, the brothers, then aged 18 and 22, set about creating a magazine to meet the needs of the tens and thousands of Aussies and Kiwis in London (South Africans didn't arrive in large numbers until the post-apartheid era in the early '90s). Following their success, the brothers sold TNT to Trader Media Group in 2000.
TNT Magazine was acquired in 2008 by Red Reef Media.
The magazine’s name was originally intended to be the Independent Travel and News, however this clashed with Independent Television News, so Ghadir Razuki came up with The News and Travel – TNT. A letter was written to the Australian-founded freight company, TNT, who didn’t object to the new magazine’s name. However, two years later, TNT’s freight chairman, on a visit from Australia in London, snared a copy of the magazine from opposite Harrods. The magazine soon got a letter saying it couldn’t use the TNT name. Thankfully Ghadir Razuki had kept TNT freight’s initial approval letter, which settled matters in his favour.