Meet your speakers for our Newsrewired conference in May

Credit: Mousetrap Media/Christina Jansen

After two years out due to the coronavirus pandemic, our flagship digital journalism conference Newsrewired is back - and we cannot wait to see you there.

That takes place on 24 May 2022 at News UK's stunning 17th-floor building in London, and you can also join us for an extra day of training on 25 May by taking our Newsrewired+ option. You can secure your tickets for those days here.

The past two years have changed the way we work and the way people consume the news, so there is plenty to catch up on. This will be our 30th Newsrewired event and our focus is on ensuring attendees go home with practical insights they can use in their newsroom.

Without further ado, here are some of your speakers

Kassy Cho, journalist and social media strategist

Kassy Cho is an award-winning journalist and audience strategist pioneering an Instagram-first approach to growing young audiences. Previously an audience development editor at QuickTake by Bloomberg and BuzzFeed News, she single-handedly made the @world Instagram the fastest-growing news account on the platform in 2018.

Kassy is also known for her reporting on online culture in Asia Pacific and is credited with popularising Chinese memes such as ‘Karma’s a bitch’ and the Four Generations challenge in the West. She has worked with companies including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Channel 4 News and the Women’s Health app Flo.

Kassy will be leading a workshop on using TikTok as a journalist as part of Newsrewired+, our full-day training courses on 25 May.

John Crowley, editor, journalist and co-founder of the Headlines Network

John Crowley is an editor, trainer and consultant with 25 years of journalistic experience in digital and leadership roles for The Daily Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The Irish Post among others.

John is a trustee of the Journalists’ Charity, a co-founder of the Society of Freelance Journalists, and co-founded Headlines Network, a wellbeing programme for journalists, with Hannah Storm, which recently announced the launch of a suite of practical mental health resources for journalists in an industry-first initiative with mental health charity Mind.

John joins us on a panel discussion about what it means, as well as what it takes, to lead a resilient newsroom in 2022.

Emily Kasriel, head of editorial partnerships and special projects, BBC World Service

Emily Kasriel is an experienced media executive who has worked on a range of high-profile projects for the BBC including leading the BBC 100 Crossing Divides around the Globe and developing the flagship BBC 100 Share Your Story for the BBC Centenary. She has a particular interest in deep listening, researching the field as a practitioner in residence at the London School of Economics and publishing her research in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Emily is also an accredited executive coach and serves on the board of The Wingate Foundation. She was previously a senior adviser to the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and a visiting fellow at Said Business School at the University of Oxford.

Emily’s expertise in solutions-based journalism and deep listening make her insights on our panel “Using the news to tackle polarisation and strengthen democracy” invaluable.

Rob McNeil, deputy director, Migration Observatory

Rob McNeil is the deputy director and head of media and communications at the Migration Observatory in Oxford. He was part of the team who launched the Observatory in 2011 and is responsible for public relations strategy, parliamentary and community outreach and news and commentary work. He lectures on migration and the media for the MSc in Migration Studies at Oxford University. 

Rob is a former journalist and spent two years as the media director for the US environmental group Conservation International. Previously he worked as PR manager for Oxfam GB, Senior Press Officer for WWF-UK and as a journalist for many publications including the Evening Standard, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Time Out and BBC Wildlife.

He joins our panel to discuss how the news can tackle polarisation and strengthen democracy.

Amy Lewin, editor, Sifted

Amy Lewin is editor of Sifted, a Financial Times-backed publication covering Europe’s startups and tech ecosystem. She leads Sifted’s team of journalists, co-hosts Sifted’s podcast and dabbles in reporting on foodtech and venture capital. Before joining Sifted as its first employee, she was features editor at print magazine Courier, also covering startups.

Sifted launched a reader membership in 2021. As a relatively new entrant to this increasingly popular revenue model, Amy joins us on a panel to discuss the future of memberships in the media industry: how to continue growing and where is the ceiling for growth?

Jonathan Paterson, head of news, The News Movement

Jonathan Paterson is head of news at The News Movement, a new startup bringing quality journalism to the social generation. Previously head of video at BBC News, Jonathan is a visiting lecturer in digital storytelling at City University and a trustee of the podcasting charity, Podium.Me.

The News Movement is bringing together veteran BBC journalists with digital-savvy young reporters. Jonathan will join our panel which looks at how to train the next generation of reporters, providing insights from his new venture.

Mattia Peretti, journalismAI manager, Polis

Mattia Peretti is the manager of JournalismAI, a research and training project run by Polis – the international journalism think-tank of the LSE – with support from the Google News Initiative.

JournalismAI aims to inform media organisations about the potential offered by AI-powered technologies. The project offers research reports, training materials, a network for best practice and innovation sharing and much more.

Mattia will lead a Newsrewired workshop about how to introduce AI in the newsroom and not be left behind by an industry embracing technological change.

Emily Sexton-Brown, assistant managing editor, Business Insider

Emily has worked as a journalist and editor predominantly within the magazine and publishing sector, and has been editor of various HR and business titles.

One of Emily’s main interests lies in career progression and training which led her to become assistant managing editor at Insider, where one of her main focuses is in maintaining ongoing current and relevant training sessions for the UK Insider newsroom. Emily also works on growing the UK newsroom and is at the heart of ongoing hiring across Insider UK.

Emily will share insights from Business Insider's forward-thinking internships which have trained young reporters in emerging beats, like cryptocurrency. That panel will look at how newsrooms can be best training their journalists in the digital media landscape.

David Taylor, editor, Tortoise

David was deputy editor for Guardian US and before that was head of news and US editor for The Times, before joining Tortoise Media in 2019

There is a clue in the name of Tortoise. With its "slow journalism" model, it launched with a model to publish less in the hope of building an engaged membership. David joins our panel to talk about the future of news membership and the room left to grow.

Who else should we be hearing from on these crucial topics? Are you interested in speaking at our event? Please get in touch with your ideas and suggestions

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