At work with: Rosa Park, Cereal Magazine

Editor Rosa Park launched quarterly food/travel magazine Cereal late last year. The first issue has sold out, and she’s just gearing up for this week’s arrival of issue two.

Where are you today?
I'm working from home. It's quite nice when I do; I get to work in my PJs and take power naps if need be. I'm a big believer in naps - I wish all offices had nap facilities. (Is it just me?) I've been told Google has one. Can someone verify this for me?

What can you see from the window?
My home office looks out onto Princess Victoria Street. It's the busiest street in Clifton Village in Bristol, so it's a prime spot for people watching. I often sit on the window sill with a cup of tea and observe the ongoing foot traffic. Every couple of weeks, a man who plays the sax really well stands right in front of my window, which is awesome. I love a little bit of background music. I've been tempted to poke my head out and ask him to play some Kenny G. Maybe next time...

How many emails are waiting in your inbox?
Hundreds. Each one is calling out my name. They tend to stack up over the weekend. I need to get started on replying to them ASAP.

What's your favourite magazine this morning?
I don't know if I can choose just one! I'm going to opt for a top three instead. I love National Geographic, Monocle and Smith Journal - I have all three on my desk at the moment. I have a tendency to read my favourite magazines at least 3 times over. I always notice something new with each perusal.

What was most satisfying about the response to the launch edition of Cereal?
Selling out! I didn't expect Volume 1 to sell out and was elated when it did. This gave me courage to print more for Volume 2. I have my fingers and toes crossed that sales for Volume 2 will fare equally well.

What can we expect from issue two?
Issue two is definitely an evolution from issue one. The photography has become more androgynous, the design is even more minimal, and we've switched to a greyscale colour palette. We also implemented infographics and maps to our travel chapters for added utility. But I think the biggest change that people will notice is that we have fewer chapters - allowing us to explore each topic in further depth - and have content that is more travel focused. We created three chapters on travel (Berlin, Seoul and Pembrokeshire Coast) and one on food (Salt & Pepper), with an interlude profiling cartographers and bow ties. We launch Volume 2 this Wednesday!

What was the last thing your designer said to you?
‘Can we remove our logo from the cover?’ My designer Rich loves our cover photo so much that he doesn't want to put anything on it. I laughed. It's a very ‘Rich’ thing to say.

What are you most looking forward to this week?
There are two things that I'm looking forward to; 1. I’m meeting with our web developer to discuss our new website. We will be launching a new website in a couple of months (watch this space). 2. We’re doing a photo shoot for our custom Cereal notebooks for use on our online shop. We will have a capsule stationery collection launch later this year, but we wanted to start with a series of notebooks to see what the response is like.

What are you least looking forward to this week?
Packing boxes. We launch Volume 2 this week and handle our distribution in-house (except for Central London), which means there is a lot of packing involved. I try to make it fun by calling it a packing party. A typical Cereal packing party includes comfortable apparel, loud dance music and multiple cans of Red Bull.

What will you be doing after this chat?
Finishing my breakfast - toast with peanut butter and banana - then going to buy white push pins. I recently bought a pin board but it came with colourful push pins. I need them to be white - everything in my flat is white, beige or grey. Yes, that's how OCD I am.

Find out more about Cereal here.

The magCulture online shop will be stocking issue 2.