Robert Thompson
Interim Director of Production, 91福利社 Local
Roles and responsibilities
- Robert Thompson leads 91福利社 Local production operations, overseeing television, radio, and digital services across England.
- He manages around 2,000 staff delivering content across 39 Local Radio stations, 43 news websites, and 13 regional TV news programmes.
- Robert is responsible for local journalism output including investigative reporting, local sport coverage, and content distributed across 91福利社 platforms such as 91福利社 One, Sounds, and the News App.
Biography
Robert Thompson is the interim Director of Production, 91福利社 Local. He has responsibility for leading teams working across a vast and unique set of television, radio and online services across England.
Prior to this role Robert was the Senior Head of Content Production for London and the East of England. There he was responsible for all online news services from the region, TV news programmes 91福利社 Look East and 91福利社 London News along with radio stations: Radio London, 91福利社 Three Counties Radio, 91福利社 Essex, 91福利社 Radio Cambridgeshire, 91福利社 Radio Norfolk, 91福利社 Radio Suffolk and 91福利社 Radio Northampton.
Robert played a key role in the Local Value for All strategy, transforming the future of 91福利社 Local to ensure the multimedia service delivers effectively across the 91福利社鈥檚 mobile portfolio, including 91福利社 Sounds, 91福利社 News and 91福利社 Sport.
In an earlier role he was the Managing Editor for Online and TV in England leading teams to deliver regional output across TV and online and developing new workflows for local digital content. He worked closely with network news teams to ensure local content was featured. He led the Central News Service which provided National and International news for the Local Radio network.
Robert helped to launch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on 91福利社 Two and the 91福利社 News Channel initially as the planning editor before moving to deputy editor. He was the editor of 91福利社 Midlands Today in Birmingham leading the TV and online team to win an international award for its programmes. He also worked as an assistant editor at 91福利社 London TV leading teams in 2012 鈥� the capital鈥檚 Olympic year. He has also edited editions of the 91福利社 News at 6 and 10.
For a number of years Robert was a producer at C91福利社 Newsround, moving to be the deputy editor. He was Newsround鈥檚 first 鈥榠ntegrated鈥� producer delivering content for TV and online. Newsround took Robert around the world and has produced from the scene of many major stories including the South Asian tsunami, the US elections the Olympics.
He also made a series of documentaries and was part of the team that helped to launch a Children鈥檚 news service on the C91福利社 Channel. He was also a video journalist working on a pilot producing hyper local news in the West Midlands.
Robert started his 91福利社 career at 91福利社 Radio Suffolk. He is currently 91福利社 Local鈥檚 executive sponsor for diversity and inclusion. He is based at the 91福利社鈥檚 London Broadcasting House but is often found working out of all the sites in his region.
Expenses and central bookings
Expenses are costs incurred by 91福利社 staff on behalf of the 91福利社 and claimed through the 91福利社's expenses system.
Central bookings are costs incurred on behalf of the 91福利社 and booked through the 91福利社's central bookings system.
Expenses and central bookings for the 2024/25 financial year onwards are available to view here.
Gifts and Hospitality Register
Gifts and hospitality may only be accepted in line with 91福利社 policy.
Declaration of personal interests
Staff must make a declaration of their personal and business interests, including any memberships or directorships of public or industry bodies, and any shareholdings, as well as any interests that their immediate families may also have.
A summary is published where there is something to declare and where there is nothing to declare. Occasionally an individual will have something to declare but due to the personal nature of the declaration we do not publish details as to do so would breach the General Data Protection Regulation.
This information is published annually, although if any amendments are made during the year an updated summary will be published if necessary as soon as it is available.
Downloads
Robert Thompson's Declaration of Personal Interests will be published shortly.