Anniversary edition of DWM goes to reprint
Friday, 22 November 2013 - Reported by John Bowman
The 50th-anniversary edition of Doctor Who Magazine has proved so popular it is being reprinted just a week after publication.
Issue 467 is the biggest edition of the magazine ever at 116 pages and includes 12 art cards, a spoof mini magazine that imagines how DWM would have celebrated the show's first birthday, and nine free audio downloads. Despite a larger-than-normal print run, it has been selling out around the UK.
Editor Tom Spilsbury said:
Also inside issue 467:
Issue 467 is the biggest edition of the magazine ever at 116 pages and includes 12 art cards, a spoof mini magazine that imagines how DWM would have celebrated the show's first birthday, and nine free audio downloads. Despite a larger-than-normal print run, it has been selling out around the UK.
Editor Tom Spilsbury said:
It's astonishing! I've never seen anything like it. Truth be told, I was a little nervous about the 50th-anniversary issue. We worked hard to put together a really good package for readers, but you never quite know how anything is going to go down. You just cross your fingers and hope people like it.
We've been overwhelmed with messages from readers who have enjoyed the new magazine - but what has been even more exciting is seeing after just a few days on sale the issue was selling out across the country!
We've been taken completely by surprise, as we'd already printed a lot more copies than usual, so Panini has taken the unprecedented step of reprinting the issue in order to get more stock out to the shops. I was looking back at past sales figures, and it's sold even more copies than the "Bad Wolf" edition of 2008 (issue 397), which was the previous highest seller of recent years.
To go back to find an issue that has sold even more copies, well, it's the early-1980s at least - and then our records run out. So I can truthfully say it's the highest-selling issue of DWM since records began! And that's not even including digital sales. An amazing thing for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
Thank you so much to all our readers for your support over the years. To keep the magazine going for the 16 years when the TV show itself had gone off air is down to your passion and loyalty. And if you haven't got your anniversary issue yet - well, snap it up fast before it dematerialises for good!
Spilsbury told Doctor Who News that around 50,000 copies were initially printed, with another 15,000 now coming off the presses. We've been overwhelmed with messages from readers who have enjoyed the new magazine - but what has been even more exciting is seeing after just a few days on sale the issue was selling out across the country!
We've been taken completely by surprise, as we'd already printed a lot more copies than usual, so Panini has taken the unprecedented step of reprinting the issue in order to get more stock out to the shops. I was looking back at past sales figures, and it's sold even more copies than the "Bad Wolf" edition of 2008 (issue 397), which was the previous highest seller of recent years.
To go back to find an issue that has sold even more copies, well, it's the early-1980s at least - and then our records run out. So I can truthfully say it's the highest-selling issue of DWM since records began! And that's not even including digital sales. An amazing thing for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
Thank you so much to all our readers for your support over the years. To keep the magazine going for the 16 years when the TV show itself had gone off air is down to your passion and loyalty. And if you haven't got your anniversary issue yet - well, snap it up fast before it dematerialises for good!
Also inside issue 467:
- Matt Smith and David Tennant – Two Doctors interviewed together
- The Day of the Doctor – A preview of the 50th-anniversary special, with exclusive new photographs
- Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) interviewed
- An Adventure in Space and Time – Huge behind-the-scenes feature
- A feature on Anthony Coburn – Doctor Who's greatest unsung hero
- An Unearthly Child – The draft scripts of Doctor Who's very first episode revealed
- The Watcher's Guide to Anniversaries
- The Wonder of Who – A guide to Doctor Who's supposedly "indefinable magic"
- The Five Doctors – A guide to Doctor Who's 20th-anniversary adventure
- Mary Peach – The guest star of The Enemy of the World reacts to the story's recent recovery
- Production Notes – Showrunner Steven Moffat is joined by someone from his past . . .
- John Smith and the Common Men – A special anniversary comic strip
- The Time Team watch Last of the Time Lords and Time Crash
- The Watcher's 50th-Anniversary Quiz
- Competitions and puzzles