The creative talent within the world of digital media and publishing here in the South West is certainly worth shouting about, so to recognise just a handful of the awesome content creators, we’ve put together this list.
Our media outlets don’t only help put the region’s tech cluster firmly on the map by celebrating our amazing startups, founders and mentors, keeping the community up to date with the latest news and generating connections through collaborations, they’re also tech and digital businesses in their own right.
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Through using the CreaTech our region has to offer, these publishers, producers and marketers create new realms of outstanding and unforgettable content. We’re so excited to introduce you to some of our favourites.
Container Magazine
Container Magazine is all about Human Adventures in Creative Technology. It aims to avoid the ‘Techno-Heroic’ narratives of the successful individual, of big technology and of corporate greed, instead, it seeks to rise up a multiplicity of voices – ones that question, dissent and explore.
Based at the Watershed, Container has released two issues so far – and Issue 03 is coming very soon. The magazine was born out of a long-term collaboration with the Pervasive Media Studio – the heart of creative technology R&D in the city – and UWE Bristol’s Creative Economies Lab, alongside leading creative and technology-based labs and research centres across the South West.
Container is part of two research and development programmes – Bristol+Bath Creative R+D and South West Creative Technology Network – which are funded by the AHRC Creative Industries Clusters Programme and Research England’s Connecting Capabilities Fund respectively.
Future PLC
Future is a longstanding media company headquartered in Bath – it now publishes over 50 magazines in sectors ranging from gaming and tech to music and film, all supported by their innovative tech stack. The global platform connects people to their passions through the producing high-quality content, utilising pioneering tech and delivering engaging experiences.
Impressively, Future consists of over 2,300 employees, represents over 200 brands and speaks to more than 390 million people every month across the globe. It’s listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Future oversees publications such a TechRadar, GamesRadar+ and Imagine Media – in 2019 Future was recognised as being the number one technology news publisher in the US ComScore rankings.
Most recently, Future has acquired Marie Claire, the iconic global brand that connects confident, influential and successful women. Future will bring its impressive diversification strategy to the Marie Claire US brand, using its proprietary ad tech and ecommerce technology – alongside expert editorial content – to deliver significant increases in online audiences, boosting revenue opportunities for advertisers and retail.
Immediate Media
Immediate is the special interest content and platform company. Their fast-growing, multi-platform media business is home to over 1,000 people across eight divisions. The company only focusses on special interest markets, engaging over 87 million global passionate consumers each month, offering them world-class content and innovative new products and services.
Immediate summaries its mission as “Content. Passion. Engagement.” As well as magazines, Immediate has expanded it reach to utilise a range of digital platforms and business models, including video and eCommerce platforms to create new experiences for consumers.
The team oversees publications and digital platforms for the likes of BBC Top Gear, Lonely Planet and Who Do You Think You Are? to name just a few.
Institute of Physics (IOP Publishing)
IOP Publishing works closely with the global scientific community with a focus on physics, materials science, biosciences, astronomy and astrophysics, environmental sciences, mathematics and education. Its mission is to deliver impact, recognition and value to the scientific community.
Based in the heart of Bristol, IOP is surrounded by our wonderful tech cluster, which is naturally closely interlinked with the STEM departments in the universities in the region.
IOP Publishing’s portfolio includes more than 100 journals, as well as a range of books, science news magazines, and an open-access IOP Conference Series.
If you’d like to contribute to IOP Publishing’s library, you can submit your paper here!
MediaClash
MediaClash is a Bath-based publisher and creative agency. The company is simultaneously first party practitioners for their own work and also an agency for their clients. Their work is varied in subject matter and medium, but is all based on three tenets: “Attention, Engagement, Action.”
The team creates specialist magazines to celebrate the very best of South West living and lifestyle, showcasing the great things cities and towns across the region has to offer. Magazines include Bath Life, Bristol Life, Cardiff Life and Exeter Living.
MediaClash also provides a comprehensive range of digital design services to support its clients, as well as organising a range of events, from Award shows to networking meetups.
For their clients, MediaClash creates and publishes marketing media. Their work ranges from website design and build to the provision of editorial content: from the creation of branding & identity to strategic business consultancy.
Network N
Network N is a global games media business, focussing on gamers, gear and esports. Network N reaches over 50 million unique users per month across its network of websites. Their work can be divided into three simple categories:
Publishing – they own and operate 10+ sites, including flagship PCGamesN, new esports brand The Loadout, mobile gaming site PocketTactics and tools like SteamIdFinder.
Network – they run an advertising network delivering high-impact campaigns across 140+ video games sites delivering over 65m unique users and around 2bn ads per month. Its partners include the world’s #1 Xbox and massive reach into PlayStation, Nintendo and game-specific audiences.
Project N – their agency helps games and hardware business deliver their goals, supporting a range of clients across video, social media, web and print.
Play Sports Network
Play Sports Group is the world’s leading creator of cycling digital video distributed on YouTube and Facebook.
They are a digital sports media company focused on cycling, mountain biking and triathlon that combines a passion for the sport with world-leading expertise in video and digital distribution. The Play Sports Network is the world’s largest cycling media company and community, reaching and engaging with more than 40.1 million hyper-engaged cycling fans and riders globally across our portfolio of road cycling, mountain biking, triathlon and e-mountain biking channels.
Play Sports Network delivers daily original content across multiple channels and languages, all presented by authentic and credible, accomplished former pros who have competed at the highest international levels, inspiring their audiences through their enthusiasm, humour and insight.
The Play Sports Group now employs over 250 people worldwide, of which 190 are based in Bath, England. The staff base is largely made up of creative jobs, while the commercial task is handled by just a handful of key workers.
SHIFT Active Media
SHIFT Active Media is a marketing agency dedicated to cycling.
They create strategic marketing for the industry’s most progressive cycling brands, combining global experience with local insights, to build brands, generate demand and drive conversion, across the globe.
SHIFT’s work is powered by unique cycling research, market intelligence and passion for all things bikes. They say, “It’s this combination that made us the agency partner of choice for Rapha, Zwift, fizik, YT, Brompton, Kask and many other fantastic cycling brands.”
Their expertise ranges from a dedicated production team that creates best-selling cycling books to Hollywood-standard video content, to digital media experience that can help you develop cycling-specific comms strategies and execution, covering brand and performance media.
