Mikhail Prokhorov — whose wealth is estimated at around $22 billion (11 billion pounds) — plans to spend $150 million setting up a magazine, website and television station called Snob, the general director of the new venture told Reuters on Wednesday.

It’s for people who are successful and those who want to be successful,

said Andrei Shmarov, who will run Snob.

The Forbes Rich List ranked Prokhorov as the 24th richest person in the world. He is one of the owners of Norilsk Nickel, the world’s biggest nickel producer, and Polyus Gold, Russia’s biggest gold producer.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary’s online edition, www.askoxford.com, a snob is:

A person who has an exaggerated respect for high social position or wealth and who looks down on those regarded as socially inferior.

Shmarov said Russians attach a different meaning to the word,

Snob to us means a person who is a ‘self-made man’, a person who has gained a right to snobbishness

, he said emphasising the main difference with the British meaning which he said referred to inherited wealth.

Snob’s magazine and website, which will focus on lifestyle features, business news and travel, will be available from this summer, Shmarov said, with the cable television channel following shortly.

Via