BBC Magazines was forced to withdraw the latest issue of its
children’s title, Live & Kicking, from retailers’ shelves last week
after an inappropriate entry was found in its giveaway diary.
The diary featured a birthday entry for the former Blue Peter presenter,
Richard Bacon, who was sacked earlier this year after admitting he had
taken cocaine. In the Live & Kicking diary he was referred to as Richard
’Charlie’ Bacon, alluding to his drug-taking past.
A BBC spokeswoman refused to confirm why the diary had been withdrawn,
but said: ’There were errors in the diary and we had it reprinted to be
put back on sale. As the magazine is aimed at children aged ten to 12
years old we had to be very responsible, and that’s worth the money we
spent on recalling it.’
The magazine was pulled from the shelves as soon as the rogue entry was
spotted and will go back on sale on Thursday with the corrected
version.
The magazine itself has not been changed since the error only related to
the diary.
BBC Magazines was quick to react to a situation where young children
would be exposed to off-the-cuff remarks about drugs. An investigation
has been launched within BBC Magazines to find out how the reference to
’Charlie’ was included in the diary.
Live & Kicking, which is based on the Saturday morning show on BBC 1,
registered a circulation of 215,205 in the six months to June this year
according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, suffering a decline of
just over 7 per cent year on year.
BBC Magazines also produces Top of the Pops magazine, which reported a
3.4 per cent increase in circulation to 436,488, making it the
second-largest selling title in the competitive teen magazine market.
