Why subscribe?
Welcome to The Indie Hustle - a pivotal Substack from the team behind the Indielab Innovation Awards, TV Accelerator and GrowthLab London.
Written by experienced journalists, this newsletter is designed for indie producers, creatives and execs who want more than headlines. They want clarity, context and a useful steer on how to grow their business in a disrupted market.
Our mission is simple. We decode the trends shaping the industry and translate them into clear, actionable insight every week.
Expect smart takes on commissioning direction, funding strategies, co-productions, development efficiency, catalogue monetisation and the growing space between TV, digital-first and branded entertainment.
We focus on what is working. We highlight the opportunities that exist right now. And we talk to the people doing it, not just observing it.
You will find practical takeaways, decision-maker interviews and guidance that helps you stay one step ahead.
The Indie Hustle is a weekly shot of clarity for people who make this industry run.
Subscribe to get the inside track on buyers, funding and strategy. Delivered weekly.
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Editorial Team
The Indie Hustle is written by a team of experienced journalists. Each contributor brings deep sector knowledge and an insider’s perspective shaped by years of reporting on the UK television and digital-first content industries. See who they are below…
Victoria Powell – Editor in Chief, The Indie Hustle
Victoria is Founder and CEO of Indielab, the UK’s leading growth accelerator for independent production companies. Across Content Futures, GrowthLab London and the Indielab Innovation Awards, she has supported more than 200 indies to scale, adapt and navigate the shifting TV landscape. Victoria draws on a decade of close collaboration with founders, networks, broadcasters, studios, distributors and investors to shape the editorial mission and direction of The Indie Hustle.
Tara Conlan – Commissioning Editor
Tara Conlan has been writing news and features about media for The Guardian since 2005 and was previously the Daily Mail’s TV Editor and TV columnist. She has also penned columns for The Observer Media & Business section and Grazia and worked on the Evening Standard and Daily Mail city desks and Londoner’s Diary.
Other newspapers and broadcasters she’s contributed to about media and the arts include the Sunday Times, The Times, The Independent, Radio Times, Variety, The British Journalism Review, The Journalist, Radio 4’s The Media Show, The Media Podcast, the Today programme, BBC Ten O’Clock News, ITV’s News at Ten, BBC News Channel and LBC.
Tara began in journalism on The Stage newspaper and was a reporter and news editor for Broadcast magazine, which she still contributes to.
She has hosted sessions at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, for BAFTA and TV conference Content London. Tara is also a juror and writer for the Royal Television Society, an executive committee member of the Broadcasting Press Guild and has been a consultant for the newspaper industry’s marketing body Newsworks and TV industry body ScreenSkills.
Manori Ravindran - Regular contributor
Manori Ravindran is a London-based reporter and editor, with more than 12 years of experience covering entertainment and media. She specialises in reporting on the international TV industry, with her work spanning the latest in development, production and distribution trends. In addition to contributing to The Indie Hustle, she is also London Correspondent for The Ankler and Senior Contributing Editor for Broadcast and Screen International.
She previously served as Executive Editor of International & Senior Writer at Variety magazine. At Variety, she spearheaded the outlet's international news coverage, and reported from all the major international film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Toronto. She has written cover stories on Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett and Malala Yousafzai, and has also delivered investigative stories on the BBC's diversity crisis, the Ezra Miller scandal in Iceland and Netflix's Squid Game reality show.
Prior to Variety, she was Editor of TV trade magazine Television Business International, and before that, International Editor at Broadcast magazine. She got her start at the Toronto-based Realscreen magazine, specializing in non-fiction and documentary. She has won numerous Los Angeles Press Club awards for her reporting, as well as Folio's Top Women in Media award. She is a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
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