New online magazine, Africa 2.O, to be launched in Dec

A novel magazine, Africa 2.O , designed to revolutionarise the magazine space, is to be launched in December this year.

The mainly online magazine will focus on varied subjects – sports, entertainment, business, a little politics and so on.

Ahead of the launch, we caught up with the brain behind the magazine, Steven Elorm Klogo, a young, talented ambitious guy who returned from the United States this year with great ideas.

Read his interview below:
Why informed your decision to start this magazine?

To be honest it's an idea I've been playing with for a while. I used to teach myself how to build simple websites on dreamweaver and constantly update them with cool and interesting stuff; but I never had the time because of school and other things to pursue it properly. One of my most recent ones was www.ourdailymotive.com , a terrible name I know but, it's hard to find a domain name someone hasn't already bought.

Why the name Africa 2.O?
Well it has a nice right to it. I have a board with about over 100+ potential magazine names my friends and I came up with and this was the best one we could use.

What's the magazine about?
The magazine is about a little bit of everything. Each issue is never going to be the same. We pick the topics we know we can do properly at a particular point in time and make sure it comes out with the best quality we can achieve. The magazine will be available in print and online we're trying to push for the online sales because mobile phone penetration in this country is high but right now we're starting out on a small scale because Ghanaians are slow adopters so I want to test the waters before I land myself into any trouble.

What's the purpose of the magazine?
Its supposed to be a meeting place for people but it's also there to show off the hard work and ideas some of the continents millennials and more 'exposed' individuals are coming up with, be it in fashion, music, film, business and whatever other industry you can think of.

How long have you been working on the magazine and what's it like working on it?

To be honest, it was about 3-4 months research and a year to properly execute [we're still not done]. I had one team with me but that went south so I decided to wait and come back to Ghana and have people who have been here longer than I have work with me and loads of people have been really helpful. The team from House of Cramer especially Afua and Reese, Mr Dan Anyetei, Charlene, Sly, Marie, Creatures Team and of course my father. I can be a bit of a handful sometimes but he's been the one setting me straight, linking me with people, and giving me advice which I'm more than grateful for.

As for what it's like working on it, it's been loads of long nights, arguments, stress, and constantly having to recharge my phone but every time you hit export to see what the magazine will look like in the end that crap doesn't matter anymore.

Tell us about the cover girl?
Well first of all the cover girl is stunning that's what I'll tell you first. That's Marie Humbert, she's on this show that I've been pinned to since series one called 'An African City,' it's a really funny and brutally honest show about Accra and she plays Makena. If you haven't seen it I don't know what you're doing in life. It's on YouTube for free, DSTV, and iRoko.

Anyway I was out one night and I recognized her and asked her to do the cover. She was skeptical at first because she is a hard worker and wanted to make sure she was associating with a product that would only be as quality obsessed as she is but, in the end she was convinced and we had a long 16 hour photoshoot and 3-4 weeks later the photos came back really, really well.

What makes you different from your competitors in the market?

Well if I told you that it wouldn't be much of a competition anymore would it?

What can we expect from the magazine?
Wait and see.
Are you bothered about whether people will like it or not?

Not really I can't make everybody happy and I'm not trying to. If you like it you like it. If not oh well. I guess people will have to buy one and see.

What do you expect this magazine to do?
To be an eye opener first and first and foremost once it's done that I can focus on letting it do other things.

Who would you want to write for you in the future?

There are so many people most of them female but the Twin sisters from Urban Bush Babes and Yagazie Emezi and they wouldn't be writing for me they'd be doing me a favour their style and outlook on life is really unique being able to tap into that for the magazine would be nothing short of epic.

When can we expect everything to be ready for us?
December.