The News Movement editor-in-chief and co-founder Kamal Ahmed is leaving the start-up to join The Telegraph as director of audio.
Part of his role at The Telegraph will be co-hosting a new daily podcast called The Daily T alongside associate editor Camilla Tominey, who also presents a Sunday morning show on GB News.
Tominey will additionally take on the role of executive editor, through which she will be editor of The Daily T and responsible for its editorial and audience strategy.
As director of audio Ahmed will have responsibility for The Telegraph‘s editorial audio output and overall audio strategy, the publisher said. He will also write a weekly column.
Related
Ahmed, who previously worked at The Sunday Telegraph as business editor, said he will rejoin the publisher at the end of April “at a pivotal time in their editorial journey”.
He said that adding a daily news podcast to The Telegraph’s existing roster “brings a huge opportunity to reach The Telegraph audience and beyond in new ways, giving readers the option to consume the news on their preferred platform.
“The Daily T will be quick to react to the big issues and inform our great audiences – and there is no one better to be doing this with than Camilla, whip smart, funny and with a wealth of experience.”
Kamal Ahmed leaving The News Movement
Ahmed is one of five co-founders who launched The News Movement, a social-first news start-up aimed at audiences aged 18 to 25, in 2020.
He is the second of its most high-profile co-founders to leave in recent months after William Lewis, also its majority shareholder, left as chief executive to take on the same role at The Washington Post. Lewis was succeeded by fellow co-founder Ramin Beheshti, previously The News Movement’s president.
Ahmed subsequently told Press Gazette The News Movement was “hitting all the targets we have set ourselves” and “on a path to profitability”.
Beheshti said on Friday that Ahmed’s departure “represents an end to one chapter of our story” but the start-up is “well set for 2024 and beyond”.
“We are working with ever more partners as we continue to innovate in the exciting world of news content and how stories are told on social media.”
Of Ahmed, he said: “Kamal has always had a passion for frontline journalism and this is an amazing move for him. Kamal was a core part of creating the The News Movement and established our newsrooms across US and UK, helping us reach over 300 million people every month.”
UK head of news Rebecca Hutson, formerly head of digital at GB News, has been promoted to editor of The News Movement and editorial director across the organisation.
The rest of the leadership team includes executive editor and SVP of content Jessica Coen, who oversees the US politics video business The Recount which The News Movement acquired in January last year, and managing editor across the organisation Jonathan Paterson.
On Friday Ahmed described the decision to leave The News Movement as “very difficult”, saying it “has become a major new force in news and content creation – telling stories differently for the next generation of consumers” and the leadership team is “brilliantly set for the next stage of growth”.
The News Movement and its US politics video business The Recount, which it acquired in January last year, together have 1.7 million followers across the social platforms, according to Ahmed.
The News Movement launched its first podcast in September in partnership with Persephonica, the production company behind The News Agents for Global.
Telegraph launches latest Fleet Street daily news podcast
The Daily T will launch in May and be a “flagship show” for The Telegraph, featuring “agenda-setting news, interviews, debate and discussion” every Monday to Thursday at 5pm.
The Telegraph said Ahmed and Tominey will offer “expert, credible and characterful audio content to listeners looking for a different perspective on the influential topics of the moment”.
Tominey said: “As journalists ourselves we will aim to elevate discussions beyond generic reaction to really get to the heart of topical issues that matter most to listeners.”
On Fridays there will be a weekend edition with guest hosts, deeper dives and lifestyle features.
The publisher said it has “substantially increased investment in audio” including by developing a podcast player in its app and building a state of the art video podcast studio.
The Daily T grows the list of daily news podcasts from UK national newsbrands, including:
- The Guardian’s Today in Focus, which topped 250 million listens a month in November as it turned five
- The Times’s The Story, revamped last month with new presenters and renamed from Stories of Our Times
- FT News Briefing
- The Economist’s The Intelligence
- The Evening Standard’s The Standard
- The BBC’s Newscast
- Global’s The News Agents.
The Daily from The New York Times, which launched in January 2017, is widely considered a trendsetter of the medium.
The Telegraph’s existing podcasts include Ukraine: The Latest which continues with updates from the war every weekday, investigative podcast Bed of Lies, Planet Normal, a weekly discussion show hosted by Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan, Being the King, hosted by columnist Simon Heffer, and The Telegraph Rugby Podcast.
Previous but discontinued shows have included Chopper’s Politics, hosted by Christopher Hope who has left for GB News, Off Script, a long-form interview podcast hosted by Steven Edginton who also just announced he is joining GB News as its first US correspondent, and Bryony Gordon’s Mad World.
Before co-founding The News Movement Ahmed was editorial director at BBC News but left after his role was made redundant in a stripping back of its board. He also spent time as the corporation’s economics editor and business editor.
He has previously worked as business editor at The Sunday Telegraph, executive editor for news and political editor at The Observer, and media editor of The Guardian.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
