Tony Ageh

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, (born 23rd December, 1959) was until 2023 the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

's Chief Digital Officer having previously been Controller of Archive Development at the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. His first job as a school leaver was production assistant on ''Home Organist'', working for

Richard Desmond Richard Clive Desmond (born 8 December 1951) is a British publisher, businessman, and former Pornography, pornographer. According to the 2021 ''Sunday Times Rich List'', Desmond was the 107th richest person in the United Kingdom. He is the fo ...

, subsequently the proprietor of

Express Newspapers Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, founded in December 1974 and owned since then by Richard Desmond. Formerly a publisher of pornographic magazines including '' Penthouse'' and '' ...

. He then moved to Publishing Holdings, which owned list titles including '' What Mortgage'' and ''What Telephone''.Speakers: Tony Ageh"
, Media Festival Arts 2010 With four colleagues he set up and ran publishing co-operative Brass Tacks, publishers of ''Mortgage Magazine'', during which time he helped football fanzine ''

When Saturday Comes ''When Saturday Comes'' (''WSC'') is a monthly magazine about football, first published in London, England in 1986. "It aims to provide a voice for intelligent football supporters, offering both a serious and humorous view of the sport, covering ...

'' to gain national distribution and upgrade its production to magazine quality. Also during the 1980s he joined

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

's short-lived London listings magazine, ''Event'', set up while '' Time Out'' journalists were on strike, then became publisher of ''

City Limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...

'' magazine, rival to listings magazine ''Time Out'', which eventually ceased publication in 1993. He was invited to join the

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'', and formerly ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the fin ...

in 1990Jemima Kis
"Tony Ageh on the BBC Archive and how to remake the internet"
''The Guardian'', 1 November 2010 by Jim Markwick, then managing director. By the mid-1990s he was head of product development at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' where he launched "The Guide", a listings supplement, ''

Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...

'' and 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 a portal for the Virgin group of companies, now part of

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

. He joined the

after quitting the UK listings and information service UpMyStreet in 2002. At the BBC he led the team which devised and developed the

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

, which necessitated no fewer than 84 internal BBC presentations. In October 2008 he was appointed as the Controller of BBC Archive Development in which he championed the public service use of the BBC's archive through products such as

BBC Genome The BBC Genome Project is an online searchable database of programme listings initially based upon the contents of the ''Radio Times'' from the first issue in 1923 to 2009. Television listings from post-2009 can be accessed via the BBC Programme ...

and The research and education space (RES) built in partnership with

JISC Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit organisation that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education and research, as well as the public sector. Its head office is based in Bristol with ...

and the

British Universities Film & Video Council British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

, working with former Guardian colleague Bill Thompson . He was made an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2015 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2015 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ageh, Tony 1959 births BBC executives Living people New York Public Library people English expatriates in the United States