For those of us living in 2018, it is only a reality for all sorts of communications and interactions to go online. Online Magazines are another such phenomenon that have taken social media and the internet by storm. How I Got Here sat down with Rameesha Syed, founder of Piñata Magazine, to learn in depth about the working of an online magazine and Rameesha’s own experience managing one.
Along with being the first female founder of an online magazine in Pakistan, Rameesha is a 22-year-old student of International Relations and Political Science.
“We started Piñata Magazine on 11th June 2016 and since then I have been literally juggling work,” says Rameesha. “I take a class and then rush to a meeting after which I head home where I have more work pending.”
However, the young founder would not have her life any other way. To her being a magazine editor has always been her calling.
“I have always wanted to be a magazine editor; I always thought I was going to work my way up,” reminisced Rameesha, “We have so much time of our hands and so much potential. I just don’t want to be one of those people who go through life without doing anything substantial.”
When speaking to Rameesha about her personal journey, it seemed as if everything in life pointed her out to the direction of Piñata Magazine.
“It’s so good that I didn’t do well in my medical subjects in A’ Levels because if I had, I would be in medical school by now and if I were studying medicine I probably wouldn’t have started Piñata Magazine,” says Rameesha with a sense of relief.
Piñata Magazine, having attained a considerable amount of success in its two years of existence has done so through a team of hard workers who experiment with the online nature of the forum in order to attain the best results.
Rameesha expressed her concern over how a team located in different parts of the world could not keep up with the timelines in terms of the fast-paced news world. In terms of news articles, they noticed that audiences were less likely to click a link than to read a caption.
“People hate clicking!” said Rameesha. “If a post with a long caption pops up they’ll read that but they won’t click on an article link.”
Due to this, the team decided on sticking to spreading their news through captions rather than articles. Rameesha was especially enthusiastic here on expressing appreciation for the way her team works.
“Gladly, my team is pretty decent and classy so none of the content bothers me because everything goes quite smoothly.”
When asked about what Rameesha wants to achieve with Piñata Magazine, she thought it could help the public be more aware, but on a more personal note, her answer was quite different.
“On an individual level, I just want a lifestyle that makes me happy. I don’t measure success by 10 million followers.” Rameesha continues, “I don’t want to be that editor that only edits. There should be something else that I do. I don’t want to sit on a high horse. Creating things make me very happy.”
Rameesha also has further charitable plans with Piñata Magazine.
“My heart breaks when I see an injured animal. In the future, I’d like to work on animals’ rights and children’s education,” says Rameesha.
As we reached the end of our interview, Rameesha expressed her thankfulness for Piñata Magazine as it helped her step out of her comfort zone and on that note, we concluded our interview and wished her luck with her future endeavors.
Amazing! Loved it.