The Lab

“Launch a weekly magazine. For Mobiles. Two-inch screens, two-minute tolerances. Make it funny, make it pay, get it noticed and get it national.”

Unreasonable request, preposterous deadline? I’m in.

Imagine a world where Top 10 Milkman Movies (#1: Deep Float) lived alongside phrases like “I thought I saw Jack Straw coming out of Hamleys,” and 75,000 people would read them.

That was The Lab, the UK’s first mobile entertainment weekly.

My contribution: coercing chimps team management; commissioning freelancers; creating house style; writing and editing;

The stale gags/fresh platform formula triumphed, with widespread pick-up (from Murdoch to The Morning Star) plus syndication on O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange.