reaction to these contrasting sides, rather than independently mapping out what’s really happening in the industry and the world it operates in, making your own analyses and predictions. Five years ago, Bright Publishing, headquartered in Cambridge, UK, brought me in to brainstorm a new idea: it wanted to launch a broadcast-tech magazine. Bright already had a successful content production title, Definition , and a great prosumer magazine, Pro Moviemaker , but there wasn’t a brand taking on the ongoing content-distribution boom. Everyone was becoming a broadcaster and everything was fair game for content – and there was no title at Bright to cover all that. Myself, Bright MD Matt Pluck and then sales director Matt Snow put our heads together and conjured up what would become FEED . With many trade publications at the time stuck in the world of linear broadcast, we saw FEED could
y time as editor in chief of FEED has now come to a close. It is poignant to say goodbye to something you watched grow from
cover for then editor Melanie Dayasena- Lowe. Simultaneously, Fergal, who had been editorial director, felt it was time to make his departure, having given 20 years to the title. It was the first time I’d ever run a magazine, but I bluffed my way through by saying yes to everything and working my ass off. At the time, TVBEurope was the gold standard for broadcast-tech journalism, so the mantra I had in my head day and night was: ‘Just don’t eff it up...’ I’ve edited a few publications since then, and while ‘don’t eff it up’ has been a good bottom line, I’ve learnt that the industry needs some vision and innovation in its publications. Many on the editorial side are balancing the views of entrenched corporate conservatism, which wants to change but can’t, and techno-utopian idealism, constantly pitching that a single digital technology will make everyone rich, happy and infinitely entertained. It can be easy as an editor to stay in perpetual
its earliest days, but I am moving on to a new post where I get to apply all the things I’ve learnt from talking to the brilliant companies and individuals who have appeared in these pages. I will now be head of communications at Albert, Bafta’s film and TV industry sustainability think tank. Long ago, before becoming a journalist, I started my career as a creative – first as an animation editor, then screenwriter. At Albert, I’ll be returning to content creation. FEED will be left in the capable – and more energetic – hands of former digital and features editor Verity Butler. This is an exciting time for FEED ; after five years of my tender care (ie obsessive control), it’s ready to move on to something bigger and better – and more agile and responsive. THE FEED STORY SO FAR In 2006, I made a leap of faith by moving from LA to London, and soon found myself freelancing for most of the film and TV trade publications on either side of the Atlantic – including, of course, Fergal Ringrose’s TVBEurope. Back in 2013, TVBEurope brought me in as maternity
I’VE LEARNT THAT THE INDUSTRY NEEDS VISION AND INNOVATION IN ITS PUBLICATIONS
@feedzinesocial
Powered by FlippingBook