Tony Ageh


Tony Ageh

Job Title: Controller of Archive Development
Company Name: BBC

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    		• Archiving: A perfect storm?

    Tony Ageh

    Tony Ageh describes himself as a Creative Strategist. He is currently the BBC’s Controller of Archive having previously been the BBC Controller, Internet. He is – along with Ben Lavender – also the creator of the BBC iPlayer, which launched to wide acclaim in December 2008. He joined the BBC from the UK listings and information service UpMyStreet in 2002 where he was the Publisher and created many innovative services including FindMyNearest, the UK’s first proximity location engine.

    His first job as a school leaver was at the Office of Population Census and Surveys where he spent his time among the dusty bound records in the basement of Bush House. He started his career in media as a production assistant, working for Richard Desmond, now proprietor of Express Newspapers. He then moved to Publishing Holdings PLC, which owned list-based information titles including What Mortgage, What Investment and What Telephone. With four colleagues he set up and ran publishing co-operative Brass Tacks, publishers of The Mortgage Magazine, during which time he became a director of football fanzine When Saturday Comes - now in its 23rd year. Also during the 1980s he joined (now Sir) Richard Branson’s short-lived London listings magazine, Event, that was set up while Time Out journalists were on strike. He then went on to become publisher of City Limits magazine, the other rival to Time Out.

    In 1990, he was invited to join the Guardian Media Group by Jim Markwick, then MD, with a brief to create new opportunities for the Scott trust-owned newspaper group. By the mid-1990s he was head of product development at The Guardian and Observer where he launched The Guide (yet another rival to Time Out), and over 200 publications, books and supplements including Wired UK. He introduced online content to a UK national newspaper for the first time. From The Guardian he rejoined Branson to work on the launch of virgin.net, originally both an ISP and a portal for the Virgin group of companies, now part of Virgin Media. He has a wife, four wonderful children and an unfortunate devotion to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.