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James Poole has joined the BIKE team as Head of Sales.
Filippo Mori Ubaldini, BIKE’s CEO said: “We are very pleased to have James join our UK operation. He brings an unrivalled commercial knowledge of the cycling market and his input will be crucial as we move into a rapid growth phase making and developing programmes with our industry partners.”
Poole commented; “I have been aware of BIKE for sometime and have seen how the Italian bike industry has really embraced the channel. I was excited when I heard the news that BIKE was coming to the UK and when the opportunity arose to be part of the team, it wasn’t hard to say no.”
In 1999 James launched Procycling magazine along with The Guardian’s cycling correspondent William Fotheringham and The Times’s cycling correspondent Jeremy Whittle. After its sale to Future Publishing in 2005, James joined the bikes division as Commercial Director and was part of the team that took the portfolio for a UK focussed magazine group to a global player in cycling media with the launch of Bikeradar.com and the acquisition of Cyclingnews.com, as well as the launch of new events and additional print titles.
In 2009 James founded Sports Press International Ltd, a publishing services agency offering additional support to book and magazine publishers globally (content, sales, licensing, advertising, syndication). with a client portfolio including companies such as ASO, Time Inc, L’Equipe, Rodale, ITV as well as numerous bike industry manufacturers and several pro race teams, managing their specialist print marketing needs.
BIKE is the first dedicated cycling television channel. Born in Italy in 2012, BIKE channel reaches over one million cycling fans every month. In December BIKE launched in the UK. It is now available in over 15 million homes on Sky and on Virgin Media.
Read our full story on the launch of the channel here
