To say our move towards a paid membership model was ‘a big one’ would be significantly underplaying it. For us it was a watershed moment, where for the very first time we were asking people to consider the value of being part of the network and put their hands in their pockets in the middle of what, for many has been an exceedingly challenging year.

But, so far we’ve been more than delighted with the results. As of today, we’ve got over 440 companies signed up (just under 35% of what we would consider ‘active members’ in the directory), over 230 freelancers, 73 creative ‘start-up’ companies, over 40 companies with a turnover of +£2 Million and a of course a really healthy mix of everything in between.

The spread of companies and the variety of sectors includes organisations like the BBC, Aardman, all the significant marketing, design and digital agencies, right across to the leading PR firms and independent production companies.

All-in-all the membership push has generated £50,000 worth of new revenues into the organisation.

Of course none of this could have been achieved without the fantastic support of Bristol City Council and Watershed who have both enabled us to reduce membership fees for companies by 50% to enable us to achieve the highest conversion rates possible. So a big thank you to them for their buy-in and continued help!

Paul Appleby, Chair of Bristol Media said:

“Paid membership was something we had to do to ensure the survival and long term sustainability of the network. The support we have received from those who joined up and took out membership has exceeded all of our business plan forecasts and expectations”.

He continued:

“We are incredibly grateful for the investement and faith companies have put into Bristol Media and are acutely aware that this new revenue stream has to equate to lots of new activity and services to ensure members feel it’s money well spent…it’s going to be a very exciting 12 months”.

Mike Bennett, CEO agreed:

“Our focus will be absolutely on the individuals and companies who’ve made the leap and taken out membership. They have helped give us an element of professional legitimacy you just don’t have when things are free. New members will help us shape the network moving forward; there will be a host of member only events and initaitves and we will ensure all our efforts are geared around understanding what our members want and delivering products, services, training programmes and general activity which meets their individual and sector needs”.

You can still become a Bristol Media member by clicking here.