Sky News has promoted Nick Sutton to director of platforms after four years leading its digital output.
Sutton will have responsibility for the broadcaster’s output across digital, TV and audio, including driving the “quality, consistency and cross promotion” across all the platforms.
He joined Sky News as head of digital output in 2020 after spending 23 years at BBC News, ending his time there in charge of its website.
Sky News executive editor and managing director Jonathan Levy said that in the past four years Sutton “has been instrumental in making us one of the biggest digital players in the UK”.
He added: “This role calls for a first-class editorial person who understands the imperative of multi-platform journalism at this critical and transformative moment for Sky News and our industry. Nick is that person and will start his new job immediately.”
Sutton, who is known by many beyond his news colleagues for creating the #tomorrowspaperstoday hashtag on Twitter while at the BBC, said: “I’ve loved working at Sky News over the last four years and am excited to take on this new role at a time when the media landscape is changing so rapidly.
“Linear television has been key to the success of Sky News over the last 35 years. It continues to play an important role, with us reaching 10 million people on TV in the last month but there are also real opportunities to use the video generated by the channel to reach new audiences across digital platforms and offer millions of more people the full story, first.”
July was the best month on linear TV for Sky News since October 2022. Internal figures put its digital audience at 37.6 million for the month – more than 50% higher than the 2024 monthly average until then – with visits up 32% to 197 million and page views up 31% to 668 million. There were 53.6 million video views across the Sky News website and app.
Sky News has also consistently been among the fastest-growing major sites in Press Gazette’s regular ranking of the top 50 newsbrands in the UK. In June it was the sixth biggest news site in the UK, up 4% month-on-month and 12% year-on-year to an audience of 20.6 million, according to Ipsos iris data.
Sky News said one of its key objectives has been to improve its live journalism, including via live blogs and video streams. It has also become one of the biggest news accounts on Tiktok, with 6.3 million followers – behind only the Daily Mail among the 50 biggest UK-based publishers.
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