Venue Magazine dated 20-29th April 2007 |
|
| Type | Weekly magazine |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Northcliffe Newspapers Group |
| Publisher | Bristol United Press (BUP) |
| Editor | Joe Spurgeon |
| Editor-in-chief | David Higgitt |
| Founded | 1982 |
| Language | English |
| Official website | http://www.venue.co.uk |
Venue is the what's on magazine for the Bristol and Bath areas of the UK.
It was founded in 1982 by journalists who had been working for another Bristol magazine, Out West, which had been consciously modelled on London's Time Out magazine.
Published fortnightly, Venue gained a reputation for the quality and authority of its coverage of the local arts and entertainments scene. It played a leading part in re-establishing Ashton Court Festival and was an early champion of the Bristol Sound, particularly when edited by John Mitchell in the early 1990s. It continues to play a significant role in nurturing and promoting local art, theatre, film and music.
It also has a reputation for investigative reporting of local issues, including health, policing, local politics and environmental matters. Venue also features a lot of humour and satire which many find attractive, but which is occasionally criticised as puerile. It may be worth noting that stand-up comedian Mark Watson and comedy scriptwriter Stephen Merchant both worked for Venue when they were younger. Author and reviewer Kim Newman contributes regularly. Another author, Eugene Byrne, one of the magazine's founders, is still involved with it as Consulting Editor.
In 2000 the company was sold to Bristol United Press (BUP), the company which runs the Bristol Evening Post and Western Daily Press newspapers. BUP in turn is owned by the Northcliffe Newspaper Group, part of the Daily Mail & General Trust group. The takeover by BUP was controversial with many readers, advertisers and staff, particularly because the political outlook of the Daily Mail is the opposite of the values proclaimed by Venue.
In 2001, Venue magazine started to publish weekly, while the company has diversified in recent years. It produces a successful controlled circulation lifestyle monthly, Folio, as well as several annual guides including Eating Out West, Drinking Out West, Days Out West, a Student Guide for Bristol and Bath and a Festival Guide. It also undertakes contract publishing, particularly for large local events such as the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. In 2005, Venue Publishing established an in-house design agency, Bang, offering design services to external clients.
The Venue website is one of the longest-running commercial websites in the UK, originally set up in 1995. It does not currently include event listings, but does publish several of the annual guides and includes a popular free personal advertisements section.
Venue is currently edited by Joe Spurgeon.
The magazine was briefly associated with some other provincial listings magazines in the 1980s like Manchester's City Life, Southampton's Due South Magazine and The List which covers Edinburgh and Glasgow. Only the latter is still publishing.
On February 22nd 2011, it was announced that Venue magazine would be closing and that the last issue would be number 962, to be sold on March 16.[1] Ten days later it was announced that, largely as a result of the campaign to save Venue, the magazine would continue, albeit in a revised format; it would no longer be a paid-for weekly title but would be published monthly and would be free. [2]