Hello there... I'm a journalist, editor, publisher and communicator which, as you can imagine, keeps me busy.

I founded and co-own UnLimited Media, a London-based content, communications and consulting company which owns its own media - CMU, ThreeWeeks, ThisWeek in London and CreativeStudent.net - as well as providing creative and consulting services to other media and brands.

As MD of UnLimited I co-publish its media, lead its creative services and consulting divisions and projects, and oversee the operations, marketing and development of the company.

At the heart of all of UnLimited's media and projects is a desire to support and enable innovation in music, media, culture and communication, and to that end we also run and are involved in a number of innovative education programmes.

UnLimited also works in partnership with Unicorn Jobs, an innovative London-based PR careers, training and recruitment company. Through this partnership I also work as Publisher for Unicorn, overseeing the company's media and corporate identity, and running media workshops as part of its internship programmes, in particular the acclaimed Brunswick Internship Programme designed to increase diversity in the UK communications industry.

In addition to my management role at UnLimited, I am also Business Editor for one of its key titles, the CMU Daily. Through this role I have become something of an expert on the UK music business and music media, and often comment on these industries for other media, including Radio 4, 5Live, BBC News Channel, Sky News and CNN. I am also Editor of CreativeStudent.net, and therefore have unique insights into the student market, and have been co-Editor of ThreeWeeks since 1996, making me something of a leading expert on the Edinburgh Festival.

In addition to my UnLimited projects, I also work as a freelance journalist, specialising in music, cultural and business journalism.

If you want to get in touch, if you want to hire UnLimited's creative or consulting services, if you want to advertise in UnLimited's media, if you want a comment on a music, media, culture or communications topic, or if you want to discuss a writing project, or a possible business venture, just drop me an email chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk. Do note, I receive hundreds of emails every day, so if I haven't responded in 48 hours it is worth resending your message.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more, here is a rather lengthy outline of my career to date, or click here to download a much more concise CV.

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CHRIS COOKE: FULL BIOG 

Chris Cooke works across the media, marketing, music, content, culture and communication industries, as a writer, journalist, editor, presenter, producer, publisher, designer, marketer, commentator and consultant.

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EDINBURGH
He began his varied and prolific career while studying English Language at Edinburgh University between 1993 and 1997.

There he was President of the Edinburgh University Theatre Company, managed their student-run Bedlam Theatre, and produced several shows for the company, including a large open air production of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Mort’ at The Pleasance. He also co-produced four seasons of EUTC's innovative new writing festival Febfest.

He was a presenter for and marketing manager of student radio station Fresh Air FM, and also presented a show on the spin off T In The Park Radio, and co-produced the 1997 Annual Conference of the Student Radio Association, headlined by Stereophonics and Xfm founder Sammy Jacob.

He was on the management committee of the Edinburgh University Union, which he represented within cross-University buying group Northern Services, and he managed the publicity for the largest of the Union’s venues, including Edinburgh's biggest student club night. He was also a co-producer on two Edinburgh University Freshers’ Week programmes (1994 and 1996).

He also edited and managed numerous publications for the Edinburgh University Students’ Association, including their weekly newspaper Midweek, and wrote for the city’s independent college newspaper Student.

www.ed.ac.uk
www.bedlamtheatre.co.uk
www.freshairfm.org.uk
www.eusa.ed.ac.uk

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THREEWEEKS
It was while studying at Edinburgh that Chris became involved in the Edinburgh Festival, the largest cultural festival on the planet, which takes place in the Scottish capital each August.

Having run Fringe venues for two years (The Wee Red Bar in 1994 and Bedlam Theatre in 1995) he recognised that the festival was growing each year at a rapid rate, but that media coverage of it was actually in decline. He also knew a number of Edinburgh students who aspired to media careers and who were looking for a project to expand their skills and showcase their work to a larger audience than student media could offer.

Killing two birds with one stone he joined with fellow Edinburgh University students Geraint Preston and Alex Thomson to create ThreeWeeks, a free weekly newspaper dedicated to the Edinburgh Festival, built on the back of a unique student education programme, and able and willing to cover as many different aspects of the Festival as possible, and especially those ignored by the mainstream media.

Fourteen years on, ThreeWeeks continues to provide comprehensive coverage of the Edinburgh Festival, now run as part of Chris' company UnLimited Media. ThreeWeeks is now the biggest reviewer at the world's biggest festival, covering hundreds more shows than any other media, and involving over 100 students from all over the UK each year, in what is now a hugely well-respected education programme. Coverage is published in a weekly newspaper, daily reviews sheet, daily e-bulletin, website and podcasts, and the whole venture is funded by advertising sold on those media.

In recent years ThreeWeeks has also produced a radio show during August, featuring interviews with numerous performers appearing at the Festival. At Festival 2009 there was also a daily podcast magazine called the iDaily. Chris presents these programmes, and also produces the radio show.

Throughout its history Chris has spearheaded the production and development of ThreeWeeks, working with business partner Caro Moses and supported by a number of associates, including Christabel Anderson, Sam Taylor and Alan Ogilvie. As Co-Editor and Co-Publisher, Chris continues to lead ThreeWeeks and, after fourteen years covering it, is widely regarded as a leading independent expert on the Edinburgh Festival.

Since 2006 ThreeWeeks has also covered the Brighton Festival each May.

www.threeweeks.co.uk

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CMU
After graduating, and having recently co-produced the 1997 Student Radio Association conference, and presenting shows on the then fledgling Student Radio Network, Chris teamed up with fellow Fresh Air FM alumni Alastair Walker and Fraser Thomson to create a network that would bring together everyone working in music, from the chief executives at the biggest music and media firms to everyone in the grassroots music community, utilising student radio, press and ents as a framework for reaching the grass roots. This is CMU.

This network launched in May 1998, and its members were brought together by a fortnightly/monthly magazine - the College Music Update. Through CMU, members got the latest news from the music world, a guide to upcoming releases, and a summary of the music being championed and played in the grass roots community. Over the years the network grew, and by 2002 several thousand people from across the music and media worlds were signed up.

In June 2002 Chris took CMU online, partly because it was cheaper, but more importantly so it could communicate with its membership on a daily basis - and so the CMU Daily e-bulletin and accompanying CMU website were born.

The CMU Daily is now read by over 18,000 music people every week day - all of whom rely on it for an independent, comprehensive and irreverent guide to everything that is happening in the music world - from record label mergers to copyright legislation to downloading technology to media launches to album releases to tour dates to new signings to artist gossip.

More recently he co-launched the CMU Weekly, a new weekly bulletin that provides a much more concise round up of the week in music, aimed at both the Daily's industry audience, but also at music fans at large. The Weekly also includes links to the latest reviews from the CMU review team and new Same Six Question interviews from artists large and small.  

theCMUwebsite.com provides an extensive archive of over seven years of CMU Dailys, plus an archive of Weekly bulletins and SSQ interviews. The website also now includes the CMU News-Blog, providing all the news stories from the CMU Daily online in an easy to navigate fashion.

Throughout its history CMU has made it its mission to discover and champion great new music from all genres - with Stereophonics, Eminem, Snow Patrol, Dandy Warhols, OutKast, Dido, Delays, The Streets, Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, McFly, Hard-Fi, Kasabian, Goldie Lookin Chain, Arctic Monkeys, Pendulum, Scouting For Girls, MGMT, Friendly Fires, Bat For Lashes, Santigold, Empire Of The Sun and Florence & The Machine among the artists to get some of their first coverage from CMU.

Throughout its eleven year history Chris has led CMU from strength to strength. He was Editor of the CMU Daily until Autumn 2009, and continues to work as Business Editor for the bulletin. This experience means Chris is now widely seen as a leading expert on the UK music business, and regularly comments on key industry issues for a range of other media, including Sky News, CNN, BBC News Channel, BBC World, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 5 Live.

www.theCMUwebsite.com
newsblog.theCMUwebsite.com

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UNLIMITED MEDIA
In order to run ThreeWeeks and CMU, Chris co-founded two separate companies, ThreeWeeks Publications in 1996 and UnLimited Productions in 1998. As he got involved in other business ventures over the following years he founded other companies too.

In 2002 he merged all of these into one organisation, the UnLimited Media Group, a joint venture between Chris and his primary business partner Caro Moses.UnLimited Media continues to operate both ThreeWeeks and CMU, plus Chris’ other media ventures, including CreativeStudent.net and ThisWeek in London.

CreativeStudent.net - formerly the College Media Network - is the online network for creative students across the UK. It's through this network that UnLimited recruits students to take part in its education programmes. In 2010 UnLimited intends to expand the CreativeStudent.net website to be the one-stop resource for any young person with aspirations in the creative industries, and Chris will lead both the editorial and commercial sides of this development.

ThisWeek in London is UnLimited's newest media platform, a culture guide for London. Currently operating as a culture news service edited by Caro Moses, both Chris and Caro aim to expand this service hugely in 2010, ultimately launching a ThreeWeeks-style media platform and education programme in London all year round.

The UnLimited Media Group also now operates a creative services division - providing marketing & PR, content, design & print and training services - and a consulting division - providing consultancy in music, media, culture and youth. There is more information about these here, or check out the UnLimited Media website here. 

Chris is a shareholder in and Managing Director of the UnLimited Media Group, holding his shares through his wholly owned consultancy Chris Cooke Creative. In his MD role Chris oversees both the day to day running and the long term development of all the UnLimited businesses and its various media and projects.

www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk
www.creativestudent.net
www.thisweeklondon.com

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COMMUNICATION CONSULTING
While co-founding CMU in 1998, Chris also spent two years working as a corporate communications consultant, specialising in internal communications, and working alongside a leading consultant in this field, Alison Rankin Frost.

He split his time between working on communication audits and reviews for leading blue chip companies, and in particular the Post Office Group, while leading research projects into best practice in business communications, contributing papers to a number of journals and conferences in this area.

Companies involved in the research projects he coordinated included the BBC, BT, BP, Capital Radio, Hewlett Packard, Natwest, Railtrack, Shandwick, Shell, Tesco, Whitbread, GE Financial, McDonalds and Swiss Re.

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VAGUE IDEAS THEATRE / LONDON NEW PLAY FESTIVAL
Chris continued to work in the theatre during this time also, through his own theatre company Vague Ideas Theatre, a joint venture with Artistic Director Caro Moses.

Specialising in new plays, Vague Ideas produced five productions at the Edinburgh Festival between 1999 and 2001, including Caroline Moses' 'Fat Girl', Stewart Permutt's 'Singular People', Adam Smethurst's 'Very Nearly Love Life Of My Friend Paul' and Michael Hunter's 'First Chapter Of Peter' - the latter Fringe First nominated.

He and Vague Ideas were also Associate Producers of three seasons of the London New Play Festival, a long established annual celebration of new playwriting in the capital. Working closely with Artistic Director Phil Setren, Chris co-produced numerous new plays at the Riverside Studios, Finborough Theatre and Diorama Arts Centre and, through a unique partnership with Really Useful Theatres, at the Apollo and Gielgud Theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue.

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NUS ENTS
From 2000 to 2002 UnLimited forged a close partnership with NUS Ents - the entertainments division of the National Union Of Students – and through this Chris managed the design and print on numerous student marketing, content and event programmes, working with various brands, including Orange, Tiger Beer, Bass, Sony PlayStation, Trouble TV and Motorola. Chris also coordinated NUS Ents’ own publications, including regular magazine Grapevine and all print that accompanied their annual Ents Convention.

www.nusonline.co.uk

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BIGTIME
From 2003 to 2007 UnLimited forged a close partnership with BigTime – producers of partnership-based marketing programmes – and through this Chris was involved in numerous music-based marketing partnerships, and managed BigTime’s download platform and 4Play music preview system.

This included planning and coordinating the production of numerous BigTime multi-media CDs - featuring Brian Wilson, Blondie, Foreigner and The Stranglers for the Mail On Sunday, Crosby Stills & Nash for the Daily Mail, Oasis for the Daily Mirror, and two unique new music compilations for the London Evening Standard.

He also played a content direction role on a number of online music promotions for BigTime and its clients - including the London Music Network and ESMusic for the Evening Standard, a classical downloads promotion for the Daily Mail and the London Now promotion for Virgin.

www.bigtime.tv

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UNICORNJOBS.COM
In 2007 UnLimited Media was engaged to help create and launch a new careers company and website, Unicorn Jobs. Chris has led UnLimited's role in this new venture, and helped develop the Unicorn Jobs brand, website and education programme, the latter of which aims to equip young people with skills and knowledge that will give them a headstart for a PR career, with a particular aim of furthering diversity in those sectors.

Working, in an associate role, as Publisher of Unicorn Jobs, he continues to head up the media side of company, overseeing the unicornjobs.com website and editing the fortnightly email bulletin for PR people, esPResso. Chris also takes a lead role in developing and running the Unicorn Jobs training programmes, including the Brunswick Internship Programme aimed at equipping graduates from ethnic minorities for a career in PR.

www.unicornjobs.com

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WORDPLAY
In addition to all of this, Chris continues to work as a journalist, writing articles, interviews, reports and stories for his own media, and for others, while dabbling in the world of copywriting for a range of brand and corporate clients. He is also working on his first novel and a screenplay.

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IT'S THE LAW
And in addition to all of that, in 2004 Chris returned to higher education to study Law part-time at London Metropolitan University. He recently completed that degree, and as part of his studies wrote a dissertation on music copyright and authorising infringement, which will form part of a CMU report later this year. Also on a legal theme, in his spare time he is also working on a book about the British constitution.

www.londonmet.ac.uk

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Chris is currently 34, is based in Shoreditch, East London, and spends his summer in Edinburgh.

Last updated: Ferbuary 2010