With a background in sales, Publisher Steve Craven founded what was to become Craven Publishing Ltd. After seeing a potential gap in the publishing market – the lack of a general disability magazine title; the first issue of Disability View – later to be successfully rebranded as Able Magazine was published in 1994, with the title steadily increasing in frequency and becoming the most widely distributed publication of its kind in the UK. Steve’s strong business acumen and vision is coupled with a driving ambition which has enabled him to build, from scratch, a successful business that not only continues to increase its turnover year-on-year, but has gained the respect of the industry, its peers, clients and readers. A member of the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) Scotland, Steve was awarded the accolade of Publisher of the Year at the 2007 Scottish Magazine Awards. At the same event Able was awarded the title of Consumer Specialist Magazine of the Year.

With more than 20 years experience in the publishing industry, James brought a wealth of practical skills to Craven Publishing when he joined in 2008. After studying philosophy, psychology and mass media, James launched a successful entertainment magazine brand, which is now franchised throughout the UK. In 1992 he joined Dow Jones to head the production department of their flagship European publication, The Wall Street Journal Europe. After six years in Europe working with Dow Jones titles, James was tasked with creating a workflow that could see global production of Dow Jones titles moved to a single location. He was subsequently appointed the New York based Global News Editor. He was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize after The Wall Street Journal managed to reach the newsstands without fail the day after 9/11 – despite their New York offices being hit in the attack. Returning, with his family, to the UK in 2008, and looking for an appropriate challenge, James was appointed to the post of Managing Editor with Craven Publishing.

Initially employed as a media salesperson, Tom persisted in his ambitions regarding working in an editorial role. After having ‘freelance’ material published in Able Magazine he was given a staff writing role that has since developed into further editorial responsibility.

As Production Assistant, Terry is responsible for ensuring that advertising copy for our magazines and websites arrives when it’s supposed to and that all adverts are accurate and correctly placed in all of the publications.

One of the first projects that Mark was tasked with was the creation of the first Craven intranet. He has since been instrumental in the development of the Able Magazine website as well as in-house systems including the CRM database.

A career in media sales took Sharon to Jersey where she worked at the Jersey Evening Post for 15 years before moving into business-to-business publishing on the Isle of Man and successfully running advertising in Business Update magazine. Sharon also worked in Spain before returning to Glasgow with her family and starting at Craven Publishing.

Telephone Craven Publishing during working hours and there’s every chance you’ll be speaking with Georgia. Introduced to Craven Publishing through the Youth Employability Transition Support (YETS) programme Georgia has been getting involved with everything from answering phone enquiries and filing, to updating magazine subscription forms. Her responsibilities have increased to include sales statistics and accounts spreadsheets.