BBC Local appoints new Head of BBC Midlands
Kay Wright has been appointed Head of BBC Midlands. Kay will lead all of the BBC's local services for radio, TV and online across the West and East Midlands.
She will be responsible for the region's digital output, Midlands Today, East Midlands Today, two Sunday Politics programmes, BBC Radio WM, BBC CWR, BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Leicester and BBC Radio Nottingham. She takes over from Hayley Valentine who became Director of BBC Scotland last year.
Kay has a wealth of experience, knowledge and passion for the region. She joined the BBC in 1999 and went on to lead BBC Radio Leicester and BBC CWR in the Midlands as Executive Editor and before joining the BBC worked in regional and national newspapers.
Most recently she has been heading up TV and digital news output in the North East of England and before that headed up the BBC in the Midlands on an interim basis in 2023.
Kay Wright says: 'Having spent much of my career in Leicester, my heart truly belongs in the Midlands. I can't wait to get back to work with the enormously talented, creative and committed news and programme-makers this region boasts. It will be a huge privilege to work with BBC colleagues as well as regional stakeholders to deliver the highest quality content for our audiences.'
Jason Horton, Director of Production for BBC Local, says: 'Kay is a hugely experienced editorial leader who has led a number of teams across the Midlands over the past few years. Her relentless focus on our audiences, understanding what they want from BBC Local, her creativity and her leadership, are qualities that I am sure will make her time leading the BBC across the Midlands a huge success. I am excited to see what she achieves.'
The BBC has transformed local services in the Midlands, and across England, by putting local information at the heart of the online experience for audiences. This means greater news provision for 43 areas including a new dedicated online service launched in Wolverhampton last year.
Across BBC Local, our News Online websites have seen huge growth since we transformed our offer. Between Jan-Oct 2022 and Jan-Oct 2024 we have seen an increase of 41% in terms of average weekly traffic (from 11.8m to 16.7m).
Our regional news programmes including Midlands Today and East Midlands Today at 6.30pm are the most watched news programmes on any channel in the region and are significant part of a family of programmes consistently reaching more viewers than any other news programme in England.
The Midlands is a big part of the BBC's Across the UK strategy to better represent and serve audiences by moving shows, talent, teams, and content to the region. In the last few years the BBC has moved hundreds of additional hours of network radio programming to the city – including BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat, three new 1Xtra shows meaning the network will be live from Birmingham every weekday from 10am-4pm. This week we announced that BBC Asian Network will complete its move to Birmingham by April. Hit drama series Silent Witness has moved to the West Midlands and the MasterChef brand has moved production to new studios in Digbeth.
Kay will take up her new role as Head of BBC Midlands from Monday 17 March.
JK
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