What do you do for a living?
I run a media business called nearfield, with a mission to ensure people never miss an unmissable event in the Southwest again! We publish a bimonthly magazine, a listings website that aims to be the most comprehensive regional listings guide in the UK, and weekly email newsletters that curate the best upcoming events. I also work as a media consultant for a range of UK and international publishers and tech firms.
What does that mean day-to-day?
I run the commercial elements of the business, including advertising, production and subscriptions. As a bootstrapped startup this means a lot of trips to the post office to mail the subs copies, meetings with advertisers in coffee shops, and Zoom meetings with the editorial team, who all work remotely.
My consultancy work takes me to all kinds of weird and wonderful places, memorably taking a brief for a magazine from Jamie Cullum in the back of a minibus in South Wales when he was doing local radio promo for his new album.
What do you love about magazines?
The smell of paper when a new issue arrives. And the growing sense of discovery and the wonder of magazines from a whole new breed of digital natives who have grown up online, but become increasingly frustrated with sinister algorithms dictating what they see and read, and a lack of trust in online content.
Never has the need for real journalism been as important as it is now, and this is one of the reasons I continue to publish magazines nearly 30 years after I started!
Tell us one thing not many people know about you?
When I go to my local post office to mail the latest subs copy, I park at the River Avon and check my trail cameras for new footage of beavers that are slowly but surely gnawing through all the trees by the riverside!
Where can we connect with you?
I’m always looking for interesting new projects, especially helping others with launches and taking new products to market. Please connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at simontmedia24@gmail.com, and check out thenearfield.com to stay uptodate with events in the southwest!