Freelance testimonials
T H E U N S E E N
“We commissioned Ben to produce the digital content for the relaunch of our new website. He expertly captured the creative brand identity and tone of voice we were seeking, working in a meticulous and professional style. Consequently, he’s worked on a series of new copy projects with T H E U N S E E N.”
Richard Oliver | CEO @ T H E U N S E E N
Tifo
“Tifo’s editorial strategy and content output aims to be as unbiased as possible, examining every side of an issue. Ben has scripted a series of well-received, insightful and entertaining animated videos explaining significant moments in football history, while tying these into the broader cultural landscape surrounding the game.”
Joe Devine | Creative director @ Tifo
University of Westminster
“As a visiting lecturer at Westminster for a more than decade, Ben has become a key member of the BA and MA teaching staff. Working across a range of specialist journalism modules, he also has a strong understanding of the enduring principles of the practice, while always seeking to build constructive bonds with the students.”
Jim McClellan | Journalism course leader @ University of Westminster
Synchtank
“At Synchtank, we seek to explore and explain some of the big issues facing the music industry via our Synchblog. Ben has a great understanding of this world. His pieces are always founded upon original source material and delivered to deadline, with strong levels of accuracy, analysis and insight about the topic in hand.”
Emma Griffiths | Marketing manager @ Synchtank
London College of Communication
“Ben has been lecturing at LCC since 2017, running a number of Short Courses during term time and leading Summer: Journalism for our international students. He also teaches on units on the BA and MA courses and has proved to be a valuable member of the academic team here.”
Simon Hinde | Programme director, Journalism and Publishing @ LCC
Career highlights
dotmusic
As news and reviews editor at dotmusic, Ben spent one hour with Marilyn Manson, eight minutes with Beyonce and 60 seconds with Bono. During the 00s, he interviewed a host of leading music icons from the era, including The Strokes, The Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystem and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and other influential acts, such as John Cale, Aphex Twin and The Libertines.
BBC
Ben was first published in the national music press at the age of 23 and went on to write for some of the leading music publications of the period, including Select, Melody Maker and Q. He was also selected to be a critic on the panel of the BBC’s influential annual ‘Sound Of’ tastemakers poll for much of his music journalism career.
Bing
As Bing UK homepage editor, Ben was content lead on Microsoft’s award-winning Help Your Britain charity campaign and homepage research project, presenting to senior Bing.com figures in Redmond, Seattle. This role centred around the delivery of imagery and copy depicting iconic global locations to promote discovery via Microsoft’s search engine. During his time as editor, the Bing homepage attracted a monthly audience of seven million people.
MOVE Guides
As editorial director, Ben was instrumental in the exponential growth of MOVE Guides, a disruptive startup which has won multiple awards and raised investment of $90 million. Joining an initial team of 10, which has now risen to around 200, he recruited and managed a vast network of freelance writers, sourcing city guides in territories across the globe, including South America, China and Africa.
UCL Institute of Education
In 2011, Ben completed a master’s degree at the Institute of Education in Media, Culture & Communication, which he studied while in full-time employment. This course gave him the opportunity to study the work of Noam Chomsky and Henry Jenkins and culminated in a 10,000-word research report on video game culture and iconic publishers Rockstar.