Experience

Sift

• United States
• Online Media

• Head of Events

  • Nov 2022 - Present

  I own the event strategy for Sift Media, including an awards programme, an exhibition/conference hybrid plus a range of digital shows.Current roster:• Accounting Excellence Awards: https://www.accountingexcellence.co.uk• Festival of Accounting & Bookkeeping: https://www.fab.uk• AccountingWEB Live Digital: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/accountingweb-live• Accounting Excellence Summit: Coming soon…

• Event Content Director (Global)

  • Jul 2021 - Oct 2022

  Overseeing the content agenda and production for all US and UK AccountingWEB events including live/in-person, virtual and hybrid events. Scaling and improving these events, raising the Sift and AWEB profiles while driving the vision for our event strategy in these markets.Delivering cutting edge live experiences that educate, inspire, surprise, delight and entertain our audiences and serve our business partners' needs.Researching and creating disruptive and need-driven content agendas, recruiting the best speakers and creating unique on-site features.Growing registration numbers add actual attendance numbers by prioritising high engagement on-site and in the run-up to live. Show less

• Content Director

  • Jul 2019 - Jul 2021

  • Company-wide remit to diversify revenue streams for leading B2B brand AccountingWEB by fusing expert editorial and community focus with a reinvigorated product rollout• Work with in-house agency PracticeWEB to run external content and TOV workshops for accounting clients. Work with Sales on new business pitches + produce onboarding collateral• New products include Software Reviews (+ supporting outreach), Accounting Excellence Awards (+ content marketing) and Insight Exchange content marketing service (+ client support) Show less

• Editorial Director

  • Jan 2018 - Jul 2019

  • Company-wide remit to diversify revenue streams for leading B2B brand AccountingWEB by fusing expert editorial and community focus with a reinvigorated product rollout• Work with in-house agency PracticeWEB to run external content and TOV workshops for accounting clients. Work with Sales on new business pitches + produce onboarding collateral• New products include Software Reviews (+ supporting outreach), Accounting Excellence Awards (+ content marketing) and Insight Exchange content marketing service (+ client support) Show less



Beano Studios

• United Kingdom
• Entertainment Providers
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Editorial Director

  • Aug 2017 - Jan 2018

  Make GLORIOUSLY AMAZING DIGITAL CONTENT for awesome new entertainment start-up in sunny Fleet Street in London Town- Reponsibility for editorial roadmap for beano.com and related mobile products, concentrating on tone of voice and user experience- Content output includes video, sketches, cartoons, quizzes, interactive games and digital toys- Content strategy around comedy, film, music, TV, popular culture, fails, videogames, memes, fails, kids trends and gloriously stupid kids stuff- Complementary content strategy for new Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed! show, coming to cBBC this winter- Translate Beano comic print content to digital space, including interactive comics and - Align content strategy with product roadmap, to meet expectation of users and commercial partners Show less

• Head of Product

  • Nov 2016 - Jan 2018

  Make TOTALLY AWESOME DIGITAL THINGS with a hungry new team for an amazing new entertainment start-up in sunny Fleet Street.Or somewhat more formally…• Head up the Agile Product team to develop and deliver ideas across multiple disciplines, turning them into successful products that drive revenue and audience growth• Build, develop, protect and deliver the vision for the Beano Digital Entertainment Network should be• Create, maintain, plan and execute product strategy for web, apps, syndicated content plus internal platforms• Responsibility for delivering product launches by working with editorial, sales, marketing and development teams• Manage product backlogs in line with business objective and ensure that all developments have clear success metrics and report back to the business accordingly• Implement and innovate the Agile methodologies that will enable the product team and wider business to get maximum benefit from the digital and product team Show less



Local World Media

• United Kingdom
• Book and Periodical Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Digital Product Director

  • Sep 2014 - May 2016

  • Digital product lead for Local World (www.localworld.co.uk), a leading UK regional publisher with a portfolio of 80+ websites and 100+ print brands including Bristol Post, Leicester Mercury, Hull Daily Mail and Nottingham Post. • Local World’s online portfolio delivers on average 1,275,094 daily unique browsers (Aug 2015, up 29% y-o-y). Monthly unique browsers are 23,905,984 (Aug 2015, up 33% y-o-y) with monthly page views of 159,039,133 (Aug 2015, up 49% y-o-y). Traffic splits down at 50% mobile, 30% desktop and 20% tablet • Deliver digital products and projects to tight brief and deadline whilst meeting agreed KPIs for revenue and audience • Work alongside heads of commercial, content, social and audience to ensure products are on strategy and are suitable for 80+ regional websites working for the biggest and smallest sites • Produce all communications for editorial and commercial teams to enable take-up of new products. Includes training manuals and 'best practice' templates to enable smooth integration of product into business • Work with first- and third-party development resource, with offshore development team Cognizant based in South India. Scrum-based Agile development framework in place Recent projects include: • Launch of ten Evening Edition smartphone and tablet apps in partnership with Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Local+World+Limited) • Launch of national weird news website, The Quirker (www.quirker.co.uk) • Rollout of 80+ new mobile websites and subsequent wave of commercial channels including Property, What's On and seasonally-targeted promotions • Constant product improvement including monetisable image/video galleries and social image sharing • Wide-ranging CMS changes to raise product quality levels across entire portfolio and allow easier integration of imagery, video and social media into content Show less



Future plc

• India
• Consumer Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Head of Content Strategy, Mobile

  • Dec 2013 - Sep 2014

  • Newly-created role to work with editorial, commercial + marketing teams to transition Future mobile and app output beyond iPad to Android and phone• Establish and run Design & Development Team, integrating company-wide content with first- and third-party development resource to power R&D unit• Ensure apps are quick to market whilst testing new revenue models, from paywalls and ecommerce to freemium and in-app purchase• Content lead for company-wide video training programme for all editors. Creation of training materials based around standardised equipment rollout, best practice and how to integrate into normal workflows • Guest lecturer at Cardiff University and Solent University• Public-facing initiatives include:- Awards judge: PPA Digital Awards, British Media Awards- Panel moderator: PPA Digital- Speaker on content strategy: PPA Digital, AOP Conference, Publishing Expo, Publishing Innovation Summit, CMA Digital Breakfast, Global Editors Network, StrategyEye Digital Briefing, Specialist Media Conference, Press Gazette News on the Move Show less

• Editor-in-Chief, Digital Editions

  • Oct 2010 - Dec 2013

  • Migrated 80+ print portfolio to Apple, Google + Amazon Newsstands. Recruited and managed virtual team to centralise all process, before communicating learns and best practise to local teams• Own Apple + Google relationships securing maximum promotion• All portfolio was on Apple Newsstand for day one, 40% of all titles available at launch were Future titles• Future subsequently recognised as UK's leading iPad publisher (PPA and AOP Digital Publisher of the Year (2011-2013)); strategy has lead to 23% market share (2014 ABCs), 5m digital editions sold (2013) with digital copy sales revenues now $1m+/month• Lead smart migration of successful digital replicas to interactive editions. Titles include Total Film, EDGE, MacFormat and more. Arranged all hands-on training with ongoing advice on content strategy around copy, imagery and video• Circulation & revenues increased, with all upgraded titles attaining number one spots in market + multiple industry awards• Creative lead for commercialisation of award-winning FutureFolio (www.futurefolio.co.uk) platform. Strategic lead on new business pitches to third-parties. New business won include AutoTrader and Jamie Oliver• Conceived & launched Football Week, cutting edge digital-only edition with bespoke club covers, live content feeds and no print legacy• Unique publishing partnership secured with Press Association, reducing risk and costs with joint venture and minimal team. Use of own platform + existing APIs meant title went from conception to live in under three months. Secured Apple promotion upfront – on front of App Store in 18 countries from launch• In 12 months, Football Week has been #1 free Sports app on Newsstand; shortlisted for PPA Innovation of the Year; won Media Pioneer Award at Specialist Media Expo and featured in Best of 2013 App Store promotion Show less

• Editor-in-Chief, MusicRadar.com

  • Jan 2008 - Oct 2010

  • Seconded to rejuvenate pillar website after poor launch performance• Product-focused content strategy quickly introduced using SEO, gear news + reviews, partner video and copyright guitar tab• Partner with commercial unit to secure sponsorship and ad deals• Introduced social media strategy and YouTube channel; lead concept and introduction of templated video reviews; launched micro-blogs to cover industry events; eventual full redevelopment of site• During my two year tenure, monthly uniques up from 100k to 800,000; page views increased from 800,000 to 5,500,000• Site commercial revenues went from red to black. New affiliate partners scheme introduced; Thomann secured as main site advertiser with £300k+ deal; client channels created to bring in laggard advertisers such as Fender Show less

• Creative Director, FuturePlus

  • Sep 2005 - Jan 2008

  • Lead multi-channel creative strategy for customer publishing agency• Worked primarily on new business pitches across print, online and CRM with both acquisition + retention product range• Directly involved in securing new business from O2, Odeon Cinemas, Sony, PC World and Roland; Launch Editor for O2 'Blue magazine’• Creative lead for ongoing strategies and redesigns for magazines for existing clients such as Sky Movies, BT Vision, Musicians Union and KORG• During tenure, Roland awarded APA Awards for effectiveness, GMB and Musicians Union won TUC Communications awards. Sky Movies magazine posted 4m+ subs base to be one of UK's highest circulating print titles Show less

• Group Senior Editor, Entertainment Group

  • Sep 1998 - Sep 2005

  • Creative lead for official PlayStation print portfolio• Editor-in-chief for Official PlayStation Magazine: market-leading magazine + covermount offering, 380k circ (Jan-Jul 1998 ABC), highest issue sales of 453k, £2m+ revenues/month, 27 intl. licenses• Lead winning pitches for PS2 and PS3 licenses with multi-channel solution, subsequently launch editor for Official PlayStation 2 Magazine. Seconded from PlayStation for successful pitch for official Nintendo print and online business• Creative lead for Future Kids division, charged with winning new licenses, product launch and ongoing development. Licenses won: Disney, Fox Kids Europe, Hasbro (DuelMasters) and BBC (Muffin The Mule) Show less

• Other editorial roles

  • Sep 1995 - Sep 1998

  • Associate Editor, Official PlayStation Magazine (1998): world-leading premium games title aimed at 18-35 male market, lead lifestyle redesign• Deputy Editor, Connect: internet lifestyle magazine, responsible for sourcing content with entertainment DVD covermount• Contributing Editor, net magazine: wrote features, interview and reviews for market-leading internet title• Features Editor, net Directory magazine: 30k words/issue for editorially-lauded, humour internet review digest• Staff Writer, PC Guide magazine: features and reviews for lifestyle PC title Show less



Journalist

• Germany
• Newspaper Publishing
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Freelance Writer

  • Jan 1994 - Dec 2001

  Since 1994, I’ve written about music, games, technology, football and film for a wide variety of magazines and periodicals including: NME • The Guardian • T3 • Total Film • Ministry Of Sound • News of the World • Classic Rock • Vox Since 1994, I’ve written about music, games, technology, football and film for a wide variety of magazines and periodicals including: NME • The Guardian • T3 • Total Film • Ministry Of Sound • News of the World • Classic Rock • Vox