Journalism Graduate Starts his Own Magazine

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Entrepreneur Conor Rees founded 99 Percent Lifestyle magazine, which focuses on design, creativity, business and travel, based on a final year project.

He says the course helped him decide what he was going to do and gave him skills to make it achievable.

"It gave me various skills and knowledge on topics such as social media and structuring news stories and features," he said.

"I would recommend that any graduate should try something that they are thinking about. I think it's probably the best time to take a risk."

Conor, of Northfield, Birmingham, said the magazine began its life during his studies when he started creating material he then loaded up to a website he had created.

The former Halesowen College pupil, who graduated in 2015, built up followers on social media and then submitted the magazine to the Midlands Media Student Awards.

It ended up winning the overall prize, Student of the Year, along with the Online Innovation and Blogger/Vlogger awards.

Encouraged by this reaction, he set about starting his own magazine business.

Initial funding, which paid for the first print run of the magazine, came from The Princes" Trust.

Conor is now working on content for the May issue and getting more advertisers on board.

The magazine is currently sold via Conor's website, two retailers in Birmingham and one in London.

He said: "My target audience is people who have a passion for creativity, are entrepreneurs and running their own business, are design savvy or people that have a passion for travel and reading about beginnings and the lives of the smartest and most creative people in today's world."

The magazine features interviews with businesses and influencers from around the globe and Conor therefore hopes the magazine appeals to an international market.

"The main idea of each piece of content is that it could inspire someone," he said.

"Reading a recipe from a Michelin star chef could inspire someone to cook or reading a travel story from a professional Canadian photographer could make someone want to explore and create their own travel adventure."

At the moment, Conor handles the magazine, website, social media, design, advertising and sales, but does hope to bring other people on board.

"It does take up a lot of energy, but I enjoy working on it knowing that I have created and built up something from scratch," he said.

To find out more about the magazine visit www.99percentlifestyle.com/99-percent-lifestyle-volume-1.