Following the successful debut of last year’s Media 100 – How-Do’s most popular feature to date in terms of page downloads – we are pleased to announce the launch of the 2008 initiative. The list, when it is published in November, will once again feature the definitive compilation of the most influential and powerful media and digital folk based in the North West.
Although How-Do’s 40,000 plus readers are well aware that they are living and working in a dynamic environment, it is interesting to note that the 2008 compilation will include a large number of new names as so many of last year’s entrants have over the course of the year changed jobs – voluntarily or otherwise…
Once again we are delighted that turner parkinson, a leading regional law firm with a significant client base in the digital and media industries, has agreed to sponsor the initiative.
Background
There are similar groupings of influential media folk published in the national media but they typically focus – understandably – on London.
However, such rankings afford How-Do this excellent opportunity to publish a meaningful and unique list of the most influential and powerful media folk in the North West which is home by some distance to the UK’s largest concentration of media activity outside the capital.
And to the majority of those people living and working in or doing media business in the region, How-Do’s list has arguably far more resonance than, for example, The Guardian’s ranking of Google’s California-based CEO Eric Schmidt as the paper’s most influential media person in the UK.
The 2008 list will once more illustrate in equal measure the depth and breadth of the North West’s media community.
We will be changing the way we publish and rank the list this year. Rather than ranking numbers one to 20 followed by four bands of twenty individuals, this year we will rank numbers one to 30 and thereafter list the balance of the 70.
And publication of the list this year will be over five days in November rather than on one single day.
Reader nominations
Although we have already gathered the broad basis of our list this year, if any readers feel that someone they know or work with merits consideration in the list, please email our publisher Nick Jaspan at nick@how-do.co.uk with some brief supporting information. Please submit your nominations by Monday 29 September stating Media 100 in the subject line.
The judges will be meeting shortly thereafter so the closing date for nominations will be final!
How-Do has built upon last year’s inaugural judging panel with a strengthened and enlarged team of individuals to ensure a balanced, insightful, credible, informative and entertaining ranking is compiled….
Jim Hancock, Martin Brooks, Dave Carter and Lindsay MacFarlaine remain with us this year and are joined by Patrick O’Neill, Kevin Meagher, Paul Carroll and Stephen Chapman. Details of the judges follow shortly.
turner parkinson
Last year turner parkinson joined How-Do as a sponsor of the Media 100 and we are delighted that it has decided to renew its association with the initiative.
turner parkinson LLP is a leading law firm with a reputation for friendly, innovative and partner led advice.
The firm has a dedicated creative industries team, advising a wide range of innovators, artists, software houses, publishers and marketing agencies throughout the North West and beyond.
In 2005, the firm was voted as ‘One of the region’s coolest solicitors' by City Life magazine, primarily because of its creative industries work.
One of the region’s best known and respected political and media correspondents.
Hancock has been reporting on the political scene in the region for over 30 years including spells as political editor of both Granada and BBC North West. He has interviewed every Prime Minister from Harold Wilson to Gordon Brown.
He is a regular contributor to radio and TV in addition to columns for national and regional media including The Daily Post and EN magazine.
He is also increasingly well-known as a host of conferences and events (including the NWDA and CBI) and is a member of the regional committee of the Royal Television Society.
Brooks
Martin Brooks
Former senior BBC staffer and the man responsible for managing and bringing the BBC’s mediacity project to a successful conclusion. He stepped down from the Beeb last year to establish his own consultancy business, MKB Media.
Brooks started his career as a print journalist before moving to Piccadilly Radio from where he transferred media again when he joined BBC TV in Leeds. In 1997 he was given responsibility for all of the BBC’s regional TV and radio output in Yorkshire before being promoted to take on the equivalent post in the North West.
From the end of 2004, together with Mark Thomas and BBC Manchester heads of departments, Brooks was also involved in moves to help develop the creative infrastructure across the north in preparation for the relocation of five BBC departments to Salford Quays.
MacFarlaine
Lindsay MacFarlaine
Head of corporate communications at Lancashire County Council – the largest Labour authority in the country.
After graduating in Communications from Leeds University, MacFarlaine worked in media production – radio and film and in public and private sector communications.
Her career has also included communication projects in Belgium, Greece, France and Germany and becoming the first civilian to lead on communications for South Yorkshire Police.
Before moving to Lancashire, she managed community development and internal communications at Northamptonshire County Council.
Carter
Dave Carter
Head of Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) and recognised as a key figure in the region’s development as a leading European centre for digital innovation.
Carter has been with the city council for a number of years and was latterly in charge of economic development before moving across to help establish and then run the dedicated digital agency.
He has been voted the region’s most influential ‘digital’ person at the Big Chip Awards, at least partially no doubt in recognition of his consistent promotion of ambitious and innovative digital initiatives.
O'Neill
Patrick O’Neill
Stepped down this spring as editor of Cheshire Life after 18 years in the position and has now taken up a number of consultancy and writing roles.
O’Neill trained as a priest in Durham but saw the light and discovered an alternative road in journalism.
He began his career in Liverpool before moving to Manchester where he joined the Daily Mail.
When he left Cheshire Life, the title had grown into the UK’s largest county magazine in the UK – in terms of pagination – and enjoyed an ABC circulation of almost 18,000 with an estimated readership in excess of 115,000 per edition.
Carroll sold his PR consultancy, Communique, to Burson Marsteller in May 2001 and departed its Canal Street front doors in 2004. His current vehicle is Zuma.
He describes Zuma as a “specialist consultancy advising both PR consultancies and clients with PR accounts” but most recently he has been in the news as a consultant to Peel where he has helped the company secure Paul Newman and colleagues as part of a broader consultancy assignment at mediacity.
He established Communique in 1986 and by 2001 the agency had a turnover of £3.5m. During his tenure at Communique, the agency won over 100 national and regional awards and commendations and was voted Consultancy of the Year five times and PR Consultancy of the Decade.
Meagher
Kevin Meagher
Meagher is group head of communications at Crewe-based mobile phone distributor, 20:20 Mobile which has turnover approaching £1bn. His previous roles included head of communications at Advantage West Midlands and head of public affairs for the Sector Skills Development Agency.
A son of the North West, Meagher was also for nearly five years political trouble-shooter at United Utilities and before was the Labour Party’s press officer in the region up to and through the successful 2001 general election. He started off working in “political PR” as policy and press officer as Hyndburn council in East Lancashire.
He is co-organiser of the North West Public Affairs Network of similar ‘out-of-London’ lobbying practitioners.
Chapman
Stephen Chapman
Chapman began his career as a freelance reporter working on and off screen for Granada TV, ITN, Tyne Tees Television News, London News Network, Big AM (Wireless Group) and Trax FM.
In 2002 he joined ITV Granada as a reporter and subsequently producer in the news operation. While at GTV in 2006 he led a team to the World Cup in Germany from where he produced all the news and sports output for all ITV Regions. In 2005 he flew with the Liverpool team to Istanbul as a producer for GTV’s coverage of the Champion’s League victory for LFC.
Chapman was part of the Granada Reports team, which won numerous awards, including a BAFTA, an RTS National Award and a Broadcast Award.
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