Tom Freeman (Mozzaman Media)

This is a case study in his own words of Tom Freeman owner of Mozzaman Media, a Shell LiveWIRE local finalist in 2007.

I was brought up in Norfolk but was away boarding at various schools from the age of seven.

By the age of 9 I was selling Joss sticks to other pupils at a 300% profit, making a tidy sum, of course not knowing what the smell of the sticks was supposed to cover up. Naturally, I was firmly scolded when the school got wind of it!

At the same school, we had to polish our shoes every Friday, which was a bore at best. A friend and I started a shoe-shine business, doing it for the many who didn’t want to, and doing it very well. School got wind of it, same result sadly!

Although academically gifted in that I got a scholarship to Marlborough College, I developed a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was also obvious to everyone as well as me that I also wasn’t making the most of my perceived ability there.

It may be worth mentioning that here I made cooked breakfasts for lots of the sixth formers who wanted breakfast in bed. This too was very profitable!

Moved to Norwich School for sixth form, where I was a day pupil and lived at home, which was “the best thing that ever happened to me, as it turned out”, according to my old man. He was, of course, correct. I kept my nose clean(er) and got my head down. I also became more socially care-free and increasingly pro-active in other pursuits. I started the Journalist Society there, getting such people as Kate Adie and Craig Brown to come and talk to students in after school seminars.

I was in those days heavily into the “dance” scene, and this is where my first proper entrepreneurial scheme came about. I wanted to start RTV – Rave TV, a SKY channel dedicated to the various forms of dance music, which still doesn’t exist. I had sourced various promoters and DJs about the idea, and was being helped superficially by the chap who started the Extreme Sports Channel and its various add-ons. Though I felt, and still do, that the idea was sound, I was staring down the barrel of a Law degree at university, and so all such plans had to be shelved.

I got the As at A level that were, perhaps, expected and narrowly missed out on reading Law at Cambridge, having been pooled by Trinity College.

I decided, after a gap year in which I didn’t attempt to “find myself” but just to have a really smashing time in southern Africa, to read law at Nottingham, an academic environment that suited me down to the T, compared to Cambridge.

It was at university that I spotted a gap in the market that I have since capitalised on. My Law degree was going badly in that I felt unwilling/unable to apply myself to it, and I was looking for something to fill my time and to aid my retreat from the law.

The Sanctuary Newspapers:

The incumbent student newspaper at Nottingham, Impact, was poor and no-one read it. For this simple reason, I felt that there was money to be made from a paper that was good and people did read. I applied to the Student Union for help, but they were ‘dog in the manger’ unhelpful and so I went it alone, sourcing the advertisers myself and carefully assembling a strong editorial team. Through a combination of the fresh, uncensored editorial and the forceful (unrivalled to this day) distribution, the paper became popular. Those advertisers who I had persuaded to get involved, who had probably advertised purely to be seen to support student activity, were coming back for more due to strong commercial response and the paper was profitable.

The paper had eight editions out in my final year at uni, a year in which I also became re-enamoured with my law degree. I finished the year with an excellent law degree and the beginnings of something rather good. In my mind, all I had to do was take the winning combination of lively editorial and strong distribution and extrapolate it nationwide to all the top universities.

In the last year, I have been working diligently to get the papers to their current stage – at the top 12 universities in the country. This satisfies the demands of the top graduate recruiters, who are the papers’ lifeblood.

The Status Quo:

The Sanctuary is now the network of best read papers at 12 top universities. We have papers at Nottingham, Bristol, Durham, Manchester, Exeter, UCL+LSE, Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge, Birmingham and Leeds. Total monthly circulation is 55,000 across these 12 campuses.

The 12 newspapers are all different and run entirely by the students at each university, so that the editorial is tailored to its audience ensuring that the content is lively and satirical, commanding a strong and committed audience. 'Twixt this lively editorial, adverts are placed high up the paper on right hand pages, to ensure that the student readership engage with advertisers’ messages.

THE DISTRIBUTION: UNPARALLELED MANUAL DISTRIBUTION

The Sanctuary enjoys widespread distribution in and around each university. Our unparalleled manual distribution ensures every copy of the paper is read. We have a unique network of students with an intimate knowledge of campus and the key areas to distribute. No other campus publication is distributed manually or as forcefully.

THE EXPANSION:

The Sanctuary juggernaut is expanding nationwide in line with our 3 year plan to saturate the student newspaper market. We will have the best read paper at 30 universities by September 2009, with further expansion thereafter.

The innovation: Sanctuary Search

Innovation in Recession: Sanctuary Search

SanctuarySearch

What is it?

Capitalizing on the success of the Sanctuary Newspapers, this is a new company which specialises in identifying and headhunting high-calibre students for firms recruiting graduates.

Sanctuary Search has been formed to develop a parallel approach to advertising by graduate recruiters to students, to provide a more focused service, drawing on the dedication and motivation of the 1000+ students producing the papers.

What is the cost? No win no fee!

We are able to offer the service above on a no graduate hired - no fee basis.

The Sanctuary Newspapers:

It originates from a paper set up in Nottingham University in 2005, which has rapidly expanded to its current presence in 12 top universities with a readership of 60,000 and will be at 30 universities in 2009 with a readership of over 150,000.

This exponential increase in coverage, both geographically and in terms of readership, vindicates the model that has made it the most widely read student newspaper network in the country, both for its content and for its source of graduate recruitment (see testimonials).

Each university newspaper has its own identity, requiring up to 100 students on each campus to work on all parts of the paper.

How does Sanctuary Search work?

It draws on the innate talent of this rich and diverse pool of proactive, interested student-staff. Each of these people then has their own network of coursemates, society affiliates and social acquaintances, on which we draw.

Due to the sheer depth and breadth of ability and personality within this wide network, the search for candidates with the requisite combination of skill and character will always be fruitful.