As well as its reputation as a party town, Brighton has recently produced some exciting new media companies doing innovative things on the Web, including Internet radio firms, games developers, marketing agencies and designers. NMK spoke to a few of those involved to see what was going on and why the “good old Sussex by the sea” was coming up with so many new media players.

Pier to Peer

Roger Warner runs a small social media consultancy in Lewes, just outside Brighton, called Content and Motion. He attributed Brighton’s prolific record in producing digital firms in part to its proximity to London and the growth of collaborative working spaces for freelancers and small start-ups to get together.

“Brighton just seems to be a magnet for the best kind of digital émigré - young, twenty or thirty something, with fantastic experience, often entrepreneurial, and with a burning desire to quit London and to start enjoying life,” he told NMK. “[The combination of] rolling hills, sea air, an established ‘scene’ and a 60-minute train ride into London makes a pretty amazing and unique cocktail. It certainly makes for a great mix of creativity, innovation, integrity and ambition, plus some genuinely nice people.”

Warner added that business incentives such as Wired Sussex served as a hub for hiring talent and generating new business.

Culture Club

Daniel Nathan runs local radio station Juice 107.2 and Internet-based totallyradio. He believes the town’s history for creativity has translated into the digital arena.

“Brighton’s a place that has always welcomed transient people and had a bit of a history as a playground,” he said. “This has made it a stimulating environment for creative people. As well as a music festival we’ve got around 1,200 active bands in the Brighton and two reasonably sized universities have an influence on the local culture.”

Will McInnes, whose social media agency NixonMcInnes is based in the Brighton Media Centre, agrees that the area’s eclectic mix of creative people has formed a culture conducive to the Internet era, and that this counter-culture adds a “subversive kick” to Brighton’s “come to the seaside” promise.

“[Brighton has] a counter-culture feel which has strong parallels with what you find on the Web when you go off-piste from the mainstream portals to the remaining 98 per cent of the Web,” he said. “Our celebrated gay community, our anti-capitalists and activists that publish Schnews, the well-known weekly newsletter, our graffiti artists, one of the longest established piercing studios in the UK. Does it matter? Well I reckon that the fit between what marketers call ‘social media’ and Brighton's counter-culture may be one of our biggest assets for the next few years. Call it our built-in empathy and recognition of others.”

Mental Block?

“Brighton is undoubtedly making its name as the biggest media centre outside of London,” said Daryl Willcox chief executive of media firm, Daryl Group. “[With] media and tech being very freelance-friendly, people in these industries can uproot from London fairly easily and set up on their own down in Brighton.”

But Willcox worries about the long-term ambition of some Brighton-based digital firms.

“Some join together and make mini-agencies and others grow to become more substantial businesses. But then many seem to stop at 10-15 people. I bet you could count on one hand - or two at best - the number of digital businesses over this size,” he told NMK. “Maybe there is some issue with the Brighton ‘brand’ that it’s ok to be a small agency down here, but to get the really big accounts you need to be in London. Or it’s a collective lack of ambition – not enough gung-ho youngsters with nothing to lose.”

Craft Werk

The Werks is a community driven shared workspace for freelancers and small businesses to get together and, after success in running one such facility in Brighton, has opened up a second in Lewes.

The Werks’ community director Rosie Sherry believes that Brighton has “come of digital age” through a mixture of community and business successes and is optimistic about the future.

“I believe we will see a lot more collaboration going on. This is already happening with co-working spaces and generally within the community,” she concluded. “The result of it, I hope, will be a stronger network and confidence between us all.  In addition to this, I would be surprised if new and successful businesses - not just Web apps - didn't pop up in the next few years.”