Doctor Who Weekly Issue 43 was the magazine’s final weekly edition. Issue 44, published in August 1980, was the ‘1st Great Monthly Issue!’ The page-count increased from 28 pages to 44, while the cover price changed from 12p per week to 30p per month.
“I hadn’t been involved in that decision,” says Alan McKenzie, who was editing Marvel UK’s monthly titles when the change came, taking over as DWM’s editor with Issue 49. “But usually, the reason behind such decisions is financial. There are far fewer costs in producing 12 issues’ worth of content per year than 52. Of course, you also sell a quarter of the number of copies a year, too, but I’m sure the accountants could explain it much better than I!
“At the time I was editing Starburst and the three monthly comics – Rampage, Marvel Superheroes and Savage Sword of Conan. Paul Neary was editing the weeklies. When Doctor Who switched to monthly, Paul was having me look over the text material that made up three quarters of the page count. But after a couple of issues, he suggested that it might make more sense if I took over Doctor Who and he took on the four monthly reprint comics I was doing. So we did a trade.