As Kerry said to me: "So, it's like you're going to leave home, get a job and stop poncing off your mum and dad?"

Yes, that's an amusing way of putting it, but near enough right. After the incredible support of Kerry and CNP all these years, the time is right for the Beef to join the big boys and scale up the operation, with more pages, more features, and increased circulation. I hope we will still be the first with news on CNP's product lines and Kerry Kayes advice, etc.

The Beef will be re-launched, with two new partners joining me in the business, on the sales side - well known writer and bodybuilder JOHN-MARC POULTON, and Lancashire bodybuilder STEVE TAYLOR who recently appeared on the Beef cover!

These two will handle ad-sales and also work on boosting the distribution of the magazine. Jean-Marc will be based in London, and Steve and I will run the Manchester office. That will leave me free to concentrate on the host of improvements we've got to do with the Beef.

I have already been talking with a dozen or more writers, who seem keen to add their expertise in the sport to the Beef. Some of them have worked for Muscle News in the past, like Jean-Marc himself, and some are entirely fresh and full of new ideas... It's going to be an exciting few months.

These is one FINAL THING which will really appeal to advertisers AND readers alike. But that will be revealed a little nearer the time http://forums.british-bodybuilding.co.uk/blahdocs/Smilies/shock.gif

And now the really GOOD BIT:

The Beef will be FREE OF CHARGE to all bodybuilders, who can pick up a copy at our designated gyms, shops or advertisers offices.
Or you can register with us to get your own copy mailed to your home address.

The mag will also be sold in newsagents as usual.

Yes, we ARE printing a few more copies!  :-)

*Existing subscribers will have extra copies in proportion to their paid copies remaining. Gym stockists will get more copies, their ads will stay the same.

o0 sounds good to me, will have to check it out.


Good luck with going independent

It's a scary move - like leaving home, but we've got some brilliant reponse from a number of supplement firms so far, without us even phoning anyone, and CNP say they want to continue to advertise with us, although not quite so lavishly as when they were the sole sponsors.

Also it seems to be attracting a lot of bodybuilding writers who were looking for somewhere to print their material.... a lot of the old "names" from Muscle News have re-appeared - Doctor Dave Parry, Jean-Marc Poulton of course, and contributors include Vicky McCann, Michael Philips, Lee Kemp, the UKBFF page, Kris Gethin in the States, Tom Blackman, Lee Powell's column, Sarah Bridges feature on James Llewellin.... I've run out of breath now... and I'm promised Kerry Kayes questions and answers to give us a bit of continuity with the original Beef. Of course the main new thing will be the Supplement news and reviews, where our panel of greedy bodybuilders will sample the latest products and give their verdicts.