BusinessCloud has been set up by former regional newspaper and magazine editor Chris Maguire and tech entrepreneur Lawrence Jones MBE, CEO of UKFast.
The full colour magazine is 80 pages in size and will focus on “demystifying technology for a business audience”.
According to the publishers, the initial print run is for just under 20,000 copies. Of these, 12,500 will be distributed in Greater Manchester by the Manchester Evening News, with the balance sent out to UK-wide businesses and customers of UKFast.
Maguire, who previously edited North West Business Insider and the Chorley and Leyland Guardian, said it would be a bi-monthly publication but it could switch to monthly if there was sufficient demand.
“As a team we only came together 10 weeks ago so to produce a quality magazine in such a short space of time is a tremendous achievement,” he said.
“BusinessCloud is about producing great content in a language that a business audience can understand. We want to make it fun and informative. The cover story is our Top 100 Tech Rich List and the research has been compiled by Philip Beresford, who also produces the annual Sunday Times Rich List. However we’ve also profiled five young tech tycoons who are aspiring to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.
“We’re looking at all sectors that technology impacts on, including healthcare, education, Fintech, crowdfunding; sport etc. The list is endless. As well as the print product we’re videoing some of our roundtables and events and producing podcasts.”
BusinessCloud has already held a numbers of events and roundtables across the North.
Maguire has been joined by deputy editor Jonathan Symcox, who led news production at Mirror Online for two-and-a-half years, and events director Andrea Wolfendale. They’re also working with a number of freelance journalists and designers.
Maguire said: “What’s been really refreshing is the number of partners who want to work with us commercially. People talk about the Internet of Things and Big Data but not many ‘real’ businesses can explain what they are and how it can improve the bottom line. That’s where BusinessCloud comes in.”
A journalist for 25 years, Maguire has previously worked for a number of papers including the Daily Mail, Gloucestershire Echo and Yorkshire Evening Post.
Business Cloud is based out of UKFast’s Manchester Campus.
