The addition of Wired Sussex means that recently-formed Onedigital now covers the United Kingdom’s major digital media clusters of London, Manchester, Bristol and Brighton.

The four organisations represent over 6,000 digital media companies between them, and the addition of Wired Sussex puts Onedigital well on track in its ambition to create a single body to champion the UK’s digital media industry, nationally and internationally.

Phil Jones, Managing Director of Wired Sussex, said; “It’s an honour for Wired Sussex to be invited to join Onedigital. It is real recognition of the increasing strength of Brighton’s digital media sector, which has grown to include hundreds of great companies from innovative start-ups to international players like Disney, iCrossing and Relentless Software. We look forward to working closely with Bristol Media, Manchester Digital and D-Media to help strengthen the UK’s digital industry“.

Onedigital spokesperson and D-Media CEO Gina Fegan said; “Onedigital’s ambition to provide a unified voice for the digital industry and make the UK a global digital leader is significantly strengthened by the addition of the Brighton cluster. London, Manchester, Bristol and Brighton really are the key drivers of the UK’s multibillion pound digital media industry.”

A spokesman from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said; “The idea of putting something together to link regions and promote skills, R&D and content development is completely in line with Digital Britain and the Creative Britain report and is bang on with the sort of thing the DCMS supports.”

ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP COMMENT

This is excellent news for the sector and the city. The graduate-hungry digital sector is assuming an increasingly important role as we move towards a knowledge-based economy. Although it is still quite small in terms of numbers of employees it is fast growing and offers well paid jobs.

The fact that the other three established centres for the sector - Bristol, London and Manchester - have recognised that Brighton is an equal partner is testament to the hard work and tenacity of Wired Sussex – the local trade body for digital companies.