The Rezlife Magazine A New Breed Of Magazines

Last week, I was fortunate enough to meet Marc Deley, a college dropout (Boston College) and founder of The Rez(life) Magazine, a College Mogul partner. Marc has leveraged a variety of skill sets and connections as well as his creativity to mold the magazine into a professional and engaging product that can rival any magazine you might pull off the shelf. I am impressed with the quality of content as well as his execution and development the business model that is already proving very successful--he is expanding to five universities in the Boston metro area.

I couldn't believe it when Marc explained that Rez(life) is an entirely student-run publication. The content includes high-quality photo shoots with the hottest students from each school, intriguing articles covering the issues and topics that matter most to students, and features that are specific to each school and its surrounding community. Rez(life) is a new breed of magazine that comes specially tailored for each school.

Marc came up with the idea during his job as a semi-professional photographer for major brands such as MTV, hot designers including Cole Haan, and popular fashion magazines. He had an incredible job, but decided instead to start his own publication and build a media empire. Marc constantly fielded questions from publicists and editors on college trends, which sparked the idea to carve a niche in the college demographic with a magazine exclusively covering its trends. Advertisers yearning to throw themselves in front of the same target market would be a strong a source of revenue. After a successful trial launch, The Rez(life) Magazine has been able to catch the attention of investors who are now throwing large checks at Marc to expand his brand.

The early success cannot only be attributed to Marc's entrepreneurial drive and instinct, but his ability to garner resources that he built through his previous jobs. He has been able to call on advertisers that have already signed on and fashion designers whom he knows personally. (Vera Wang and Cole Haan were at the last shoot) He has been able to leverage these connections to gain introductions to other people, who have likewise been able to help him. At the same time, he held his own photography business (which he still runs) and is also the manager of several bands and DJs. These relationships have opened up the door to partnerships with radio stations and others that he utilizes to build his business.

Each magazine will be run by a team of writers and editors from each campus and 50% of the content of each issue specific to each area. These issues are also published online through a unique application that allows one to view the content as if that person were flipping pages through the actual product itself. Marc's business model is next to ingenious because of its built in viral mechanisms that naturally cause people to spread his creation. It is smart because students and models that are featured naturally have an inclination to tell their friends. The same happens with its large group of writers, who are proud of their work, and willing to hand out thousands of copies across the campus. Furthermore, the business model is diversified; he will be selling print and online advertising. Although print advertising is on the decline, he notes that school publications are usually the most profitable because students still read them, and for that reason advertisers are still willing to pay.

We are looking forward to working with Marc and Rez(life). We'll have a few articles featured in each magazine and syndicate our content through his site. Can't wait to see where this company goes…