Today I got a phone call from the editor of the Fat Controller, a national student magazine in which I've been keenly interested since I stumbled across it in the Union last year. It's the first time I'd directly spoken to anyone on the editorial team, but as I am currently in the process of working on some content for the next issue, we needed to talk.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, I am a strong advocate of decent student publishing, and while at Loughborough, the quality of the weekly 'Label' publication was often lacklustre. It was a huge relief to find a magazine with a bit of creative flare, some gritty journalism on national issues and some truly interesting content. Also a place where I could get my work seen. It isn't meant to be a replacement for the 'local' zine, if anything it's the opposite, bringing national and general interest to the forefront.

I don't often get excited by text-based stuff; I haven't subscribed to a magazine, well, ever. But this is different, and I urge you, if you are a student or recent graduate, to consider picking up a copy when you next see it in your Union. It's free and you will be impressed. Don't expect watered down articles on 'student issues', or what this week's 'cool thing' is; they've been vetoed and replaced instead with genuinely interesting articles and professionally executed visual appeal.

The main problem is this. A number of universities are trying to stop this magazine getting to the students. They claim the magazine is a threat to their own advertising structures and therefore are trying to make Fat Controller pay exorbitant distribution costs (and I'm talking more than a student debt's worth per university, per issue). Ever wondered why there isn't a national student magazine already? Surely somebody must have tried it before? Well if they did, this is the reason they didn't get very far.

The facts are these. Fat Controller does not take local advertising. It would not be sensible to. It is a national publication, and therefore seeks it's advertising revenue from larger organisations, organisations who currently do not feature much in the local publications because of the small scale nature of their circulation.

This blockade is not coming from the elected sabbatical students, it's coming from the administrators within the Unions (non-elected, often long-serving members of staff). They are effectively running a monopoly and stopping a legitimate student publication from being seen in the universities; a publication that gives a chance for any young creative student to push their journalism/design skills onto a national stage. This valuable experience is being lost because of stubborn universities trying to make a fast buck on a student-run enterprise.

All I ask is this. If you are a student please visit www.fat-controller.com and facebook group to see the sort of thing they get up to. I would not endorse anything I didn't think was worthwhile. Try and pick up an issue the next time you are in the Union shop (in Loughborough they are in the shop on campus and outside the art shop by Label). Join the facebook action group [link to come] and check whether your university is one of the problem makers. Show some support for student freedom of speech and free enterprise, and if you are a photographer, creative writer or graphic artist with talent and you want free exposure to 100,000 readers, drop them an email.

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