Right now I split my time as a strategic comms and content consultant and as a writer and publisher.
I live in South-East London with my wife and my dog. This is my personal website.
Work
In the early 2000s I started a blog called The Big Smoker in my spare time. That site went on to become Londonist, which I edited for around three years.
Later I edited Yahoo News in the UK, after leaving there I spent a few years launching and growing the startup Qype (later bought by Yelp).
I also spent some time serving as the CMO of a venture-backed digital music company, with investment from the backers of Twitter, Tumblr, Medium, and Kickstarter. My job there was to drive audience growth ahead of an acquisition.
I was Director of Content at the agency TH_NK, until it was acquired by Epam in late 2019. While there I was lucky enough to work with on projects for J.K. Rowling, John le Carré, Warner Bros, and Channel 4 (with the brilliant Dennis Kelly).
Right now I'm the editor of London in Bits, an independent newsletter about London's news, politics, arts, food and people.
Writing
Over the years I’ve written about film, design, art and music for titles including Blueprint, Grafik, Flavorpill and Little White Lies.
While I was editing Londonist, myself and some of the contributors wrote an alternative guide book to London called The London Collection. One review called it “No ordinary miscellany. A joy.” Another called it “Daft but diverting bog literature.”
Occasionally I write about tech and digital culture for titles like Campaign, Wired, Brand Republic, The Drum and Marketing Magazine.
Miscellaneous
I used to co-host a monthly film event called Documentary Club (later: Non-Fiction Addiction). The idea was very simple: show some of our favourite documentaries and then talk about them in the bar afterwards. That was fun, but I found hosting monthly events quite stressful. Maybe it will come back some day.
Through 2022-23 I hosted a radio show called Cracking Flags on the internet station Loose.fm. I don't do it anymore but you can find an archive of all the shows here.
I'm a fan of boardgames of all types. I buy way more stationery than I actually use. If I had to eat one type of food for the rest of my life it would probably be Mexican food (or cereal). I love pop art in all its forms. I cannot sing. I love heist films.
That's pretty much all you need to know.
You can follow me on Mastodon if you like.
Or say hello the old fasioned(ish) way.