We Are One Today And We Have News

08/07/2015
Rife Editor

It’s been a year since Rife Magazine went live.

Rife had one mission – to be a mouthpiece for the young people of Bristol. To create a magazine that was everything young people are – funny, passionate, curious, interested, contentious, silly, edgy, slightly off-key – and by golly, they’ve worked hard to do this. Following months of consultation with Bristol youth, the first set of in-house young journalists were hired and ready. How far has Rife come in one year?

With twelve paid jobs for young Bristol creatives, nearly 400 pieces of live content on the site, over 50 (and counting) external contributors, nearly 2000 followers on Twitter and thriving Facebook, Instagram and YouTube communities it really has made some waves in the last year. With 200,000 page views, 22,000 views on YouTube and three separate pieces about cats, Rife Magazine has become a lively, witty, edgy hub for the young people of Bristol to voice their opinions.

Rife has worked with youth groups on a range of intensive partnership projects and there are many more lined up for the coming year. Moreover, all of the previous in-house content creators have gone on to further employment, which is amazing.

To celebrate Rife’s first birthday, we’re launching two exciting new initiatives: The Rife Awards and Rife Guide.

The Rife Awards are setting out to find Bristol’s best photographer, features writer and documentary maker aged 13-19. Breaking into the creative industries can be hard – especially when you’re a young person. That’s why we’re proud to introduce the Rife Awards: a shot of exposure, energy and cash into your creative project. There are three prizes of £300 to give away to the most creative, most imaginative and most original bits of content you can muster. Enter now.

Then later this month Rife Guide goes live. Launching on Wed 22 July, Rife Guide will be a sister site to Rife Magazine, acting as a complete revamp of Go Places Do Things. Rife Guide will be a lively, informative site for young people to find out what’s going on in their city – events, networking opportunities, jobs, places to hang out, courses, studio time, advice sessions and more. It’ll be THE place for young people to find out what to do.

Clare Reddington, Watershed Creative Director says:

‘As well as establishing itself as a vital resource for young people in Bristol, in just one year Rife has embedded itself into the fabric of Watershed, bringing talented young people in to everything we do – from programming decisions to recruitment, governance to commissioning. In a time when the demographic mix of Bristol continues to get younger, we knew it was vital to find new ways to connect with young people, in order to remain relevant and engaged. However, the wisdom, humour, energy and dedication of the Rife team has changed us far more quickly and deeply than we could have imagined. We look forward to continuing to work with Rife’s talented teams of young people, learning from the discussions and debates they catalyse and spreading the influence even further in the years to come.

Rachel Beatty Bristol City Council Commissioning Manager says:

Bristol Youth Links would like to wish Rife Magazine a very Happy 1st Birthday! We are delighted with the progress of Rife Magazine, young people creating content for the magazine have superseded expectations in terms of quality of the articles, relevancy, variety and quantity. Through partnership projects with local youth projects and working with young content creators, Rife Magazine has been a platform for young people to discuss issues that are important to them such as mental health, racism, politics, and coping with exam stress. We are now really excited for the launch of Rife Guide, launching in time for the school holidays, and building on the success of Rife Magazine.’

Rife Magazine is part of Bristol Youth Links provided by Watershed funded in partnership with Bristol City Council.