About

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.” —Hunter S. Thompson

 

Welcome to the ‘About Me’ – a page that historically always needs to open with a cool-sounding quote you hope the person actually said, sitting alongside a headshot that took more outfit changes than a Taylor Swift concert, and more retouching than a magazine cover. Hopefully I haven’t disappointed on either count.

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I’m an award-winning Content Director, senior writer and editor with more than 18 years across consumer print and digital publishing, content marketing, internal comms, SEO, social, email and film. They say the secret to a long media career is to find a lane and stick to it. I’ve always thought the opposite.

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My background runs from newsroom journalism through magazine editorial to content marketing and that gives me something a lot of content leaders don’t have: I can find the story and build the system that delivers it at scale. A journalist by trade, I understand how earned ideas work and I build campaigns on those same editorial principles. Whether it’s a marketing push, a PR moment or a four-page magazine feature, the only content that truly cuts through is content built audience-first. Trends, best practice and platform behaviour all matter – but if you don’t understand your audience, all you’ve got is some nice shiny work that’s never going to travel. (Believe me, I’ve been pitched enough of that to last several lifetimes).

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Since 2018, I’ve grown with the Virgin Media O2 account from Content Editor to Content Director – first at Redwood BBDO and, following its integration into AMV BBDO in 2025, now within one of the UK’s most celebrated creative agencies. In that time, I’ve led a multi-million-pound, multi-channel programme reaching an audience of millions, and taken it into new territory: social, film, DOOH and a second email programme for O2.

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During my time on the account, I overhauled the Virgin Media Edit content and email programme – new strategy, full redesign, a relentless focus on NPS – and drove it to industry-leading open and action rates and record site traffic. When Covid hit, I pivoted the editorial strategy overnight and delivered an 80% year-on-year increase in SEO traffic, with a later seasonal push adding another 92% on top of that. I’ve also produced a Lens Award-nominated mini-documentary series and led content across four BAFTA campaigns, including the on-the-night winner interviews, highlights packages and a VT for the ceremony itself.

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Before all of that, I learned the trade on newsroom floors. I chased front-page exclusives as a Showbiz Reporter at the News of the World; ran the 40-plus-page news and games section at ZOO every week for Bauer Media; I launched GLITCH from a stalled concept into a commercially successful bi-monthly magazine at Egmont; edited TOXIC, the UK’s market-leading boys’ magazine, to record sales; and cut my teeth as Assistant Editor on Shanghai’s leading English-language magazine, Shanghai Talk. I also spent a year at an internal comms agency – for the likes of Hitachi Rail, Post Office, KPMG and TfL – and I picked up a clutch of IoIC Awards along the way. I also launched a lockdown podcast when I got sick of banana bread.

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Outside of AMV, I still drop bylines: men’s and women’s lifestyle features, celebrity interviews, travel, video games, plus the odd humour and opinion piece. Recent favourites include The Big Issue’s Game of Thrones cover, a pandemic feature on the role of dogs in tackling homelessness and interviews with Joe Lycett, Chris and Rosie Ramsey and Robert Bilott. As the list below shows, my ability as a writer (and a Content Director) is to turn my skills to find a story in almost anything, and almost anywhere.

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I live in Peckham, I’m a keen runner (you’ll wait roughly two minutes in my company before I mention marathons) and OBVIOUSLY I’m trying to write a book. You can reach me at wordsbysimon@gmail.com, find me on X @simonjward or view my full LinkedIn profile here.​

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Career history

Content Director, Virgin Media O2 – AMV BBDO (Nov 2025–present)

Content Director, Virgin Media O2 – Redwood BBDO (Apr 2023–Nov 2025)

Content Editor, Virgin Media – Redwood BBDO (Oct 2018–May 2023)

Senior Journalist & Creative, Freelance (2010–present)

Editor, AB (Oct 2017–Oct 2018)

Founding Editor, GLITCH Magazine – Egmont (Aug 2015–Oct 2017)

Editor, TOXIC Magazine – Egmont (Mar 2014–Oct 2017)

News & Games Editor, ZOO Magazine – Bauer Media (Sep 2010–Mar 2014)

Showbiz Reporter, News of the World (Sep 2007–May 2010)

Assistant Editor, Talk Magazine Shanghai (Mar–Aug 2007)

 

National Newspapers Experience

News of the World, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Press Association, TheLondonPaper, The Non-League Paper.

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Consumer Lifestyle Experience

The Big Issue, Time Out London, Cosmopolitan, The Week Junior, Best, Reveal, Now, Nuts, FHM, Kerrang!, More!, ZOO, Talk Magazine Shanghai.

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Online & Social Experience

Virgin Media, O2, AMV BBDO (formerly Redwood BBDO), Comedy Central UK, The Huffington Post UK, News of the World, ZOO, TOXIC, Fabulous.

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Branded Content, Copywriting, Advertorials, Internal Comms

Virgin Media, O2, HP, HSBC, Paramount, Comedy Central, Hitachi Rail, Post Office, KPMG, TfL, Wolseley, Covestro.

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Books

TOXIC Annual 2015, The Week Junior Annual 2018, The Week Junior Science + Nature.

 

Awards

Best Video in a Documentary Style (Highly Commended) – Lens Awards 2022

Best Video, Series (Nominated) – Content Marketing Association Awards 2022

Best Storytelling, for Hitachi Rail’s Fusion – IoIC Awards 2019

Best News Magazine (Print), for Hitachi Rail’s Fusion – IoIC Awards 2018

Best Storytelling, for Hitachi Rail’s Fusion – IoIC Awards 2018

Best Mainstream Media Brand (Nominated, as Editor of TOXIC) – Games Media Awards 2016

Mainstream Magazine Writer (Nominated) – Games Media Awards 2013

MCV’s 30 Under 30 (Named)