It’s Tuesday afternoon in the Live Magazine office in Cape Town’s Waterkant, and the place is pumping. Young people are gathered around laptops, typing, discussing, watching video clips online. On a whiteboard, a rough plan of the content for the next issue has been stuck up. The cover story, it appears, will be: “Are SA Youth oversexed?” Editor Ashleigh Davids, 21, approaches me as I study some of the cover mock-ups. “We think that one might be a bit raunchy,” she says, pointing to a photo of a topless woman in silhouette standing over a man. “We have to choose with care, because even though people get the magazine for free, they’re picky about what they pick up.”
Live Magazine is now just over a year old, and boasts a circulation of about 50,000 in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. In addition to bringing out a print edition every three months, the team produces dedicated content for a YouTube channel and a mobile-enabled website. It’s a far cry from the situation when founder Gavin Weale, originally from the UK, arrived in South Africa last year May armed only with “a laptop, a suitcase, a three-year visa and the big idea,” as Weale wrote for the Guardian. “I had one friend and a handful of contacts, no car, no home and some serious challenges on my hands.”
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