Bureau Local announces new editorial leadership
Our award-winning Bureau Local has hired Emily Wilson, currently head of home news at ITN’s Channel 4 News, to join the team in the newly created role of Bureau Local Editor.
Emily has spent the past 17 years at Channel 4 News and has been instrumental in delivering agenda-setting public interest news and investigations. For the past four years as head of home news, Emily has grown Channel 4 News’ out-of-London reporting, supported the launch of a bureau in Glasgow, and expanded award-winning journalism in Manchester, Nottingham and Cardiff. She has been a champion of local stories, collaborative journalism and innovation in public interest news.
Emily’s editorial leadership can be seen in Channel 4 News’ Care Home Deaths series, Covid Testing chaos and the Breadline Britain series on food poverty. She and her team partnered with the Bureau Local on our Make Them Count investigation to count, for the first time, the number of homeless deaths in the UK. This ultimately led to official records of these deaths and prompted localised review of adult safeguarding.
Emily says: “I am thrilled to be joining the superb Bureau Local team, and look forward to getting stuck into investigating local stories and issues that can shine a light on how our country is run.” She will join the team in April.
For nearly four years, the Bureau Local has been growing its people-powered network for local news and delivering collaborative investigations with people and newsrooms across the UK. In 2021, the Bureau Local is stepping up our journalism on local power while also taking on new issues: health inequality and employment. We’re excited to bring in Emily to lead the editorial direction of the Bureau Local’s future at such a critical time.
The timing of this appointment is also crucial to the wider mission of the Bureau Local. With local news facing the existential crisis of survival, we will be exploring how we as an organisation and a network can make a difference to support the future of public interest news.
Our Bureau Local Director, Megan Lucero, will now focus on the service our work provides to the industry and the sustainability of the project.
Megan said: “Emily is a powerhouse investigative editor, passionate public interest news advocate and inspirational leader for the future of news. I’m thrilled she is joining us and know that her addition will grow the ambition and impact of our work. I’m looking forward to working closely with her to take the incredibly important offering of the Bureau Local to the next level.”
