Toby Sealey

Leadership and Editorial Oversight

• Leading the team responsible for all news/sports bulletins and core newsgathering across four fully visualised national networks (Times Radio, talkSPORT, TALK, Virgin UK).
• Podcast creation and oversight.
• Legal and Editorial compliance 24/7, 365 days.
• Forward planning - from managing day-to-day staffing to coordinating major national events (e.g Operation London Bridge).
• Budget control and prioritisation.

Stakeholder and Partner Management

• Providing a news service and editorial guidance for station directors and senior executives.
• Strengthening collaboration with News UK publishers (The Times, The Sun).
• Commissioning and maintaining third-party provision (e.g. Independent Radio News, Sky Radio, PA Media).
• Government liaison for state occasions, including category A Royal events (DCMS, Cabinet Office, Royal Household).
• An integral member of the division’s management team, contributing to strategic overview of priorities, operational planning, and responses to emerging challenges.

Strategic Development and Innovation

• Driving the visualisation of “radio” for the UK’s most digitally connected commercial broadcaster.
• Creating tangible mechanisms for fuller and more effective integration with News UK publishers (The Times, The Sun).
• Developing AI newsroom tools to enable competitive advantage.

Key Insights

• First-hand experience of launching and sustaining a linear TV news channel (TalkTV) in a rapidly shifting, digital-first market, including establishing the service, stabilising it, cutting costs, and repositioning it to find an audience. Unique exposure to the changing realities of making news content in a digital-first market.
• Experience of delivering high-quality visual content without the “TV” price tag. Balancing high production standards with the need to streamline workflows and upskill and motivate a reluctant workforce. Recognising the importance of distributing content on third-party platforms like YouTube, smart TV, and social media.

Senior News Editor

• Focussed on reaching hard-to-engage C2DE and young audiences across Radio 1’s Newsbeat, BBC Switch (BBC Two) and youth-focused current affairs documentaries for BBC iPlayer and BBC Three.

TV/Visual

• Panorama Producer/Director; BBC One News Producer (1, 6 and 10 o’clock); Correspondent/Producer in Newsgathering and the Social Affairs Unit; self-shooting Producer/Director (Rip Off Britain); iPlayer Documentary Commissioner; regional TV reporter.

Radio/Podcasting

• Assistant Editor, Radio 1 Newsbeat; Reporter and Newsreader across national, regional and local BBC; Editor of Radio 1 News Podcasts and BBC Sounds Exclusives; Social & Home Affairs correspondent; regional reporter; editorial lead on General Election coverage (2010, 2015, 2017).

Specialisms

• Home Affairs (also covering Health and Legal); former Business Specialist at Radio 1 Newsbeat.

Key Insights

• Effectively navigating the complex relationships between siloed and competing departments in a multi-layered and constantly evolving large public organisation.
• Understanding the structural barriers that prevent impactful delivery of content in complex organisations.
• Recognising the risks of producing content simply because a budget exists, rather than to serve audiences or organisational purpose.