Shelley Bishton

Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, News UK

Shelley joined News UK in September 2018. As Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, she works as an advocate for diversity, sharing up-to-date advice and learnings across News UK, which is home to brands including The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, TalkTV, talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK and Times Radio.

News UK’s DEI team works to support the business in its aim to create a pathway to a 50/50 gender split across the company’s workforce, with a 20 per cent target of representation of ethnic minorities. The business is focused on three key priorities:

Attracting, developing and retaining young talent from a much broader pool

Driving gender and ethnic diversity in our wider leadership

Ensuring diversity and inclusivity in our workforce as well as the journalism and content we produce

Over the last 24 months, News UK has hired over 63 apprentices, of which 60% are ethnic minorities and 66% are female. The company has also created over 40 internships as part of the Government’s Kickstart scheme. Journalism outreach programmes and partnerships have also been developed with The Raheem Sterling Foundation, The Aziz Foundation, The Black Collective of Media In Sport and Media Trust.

With a career in media spanning 15 years, Shelley joined News UK in 2018 as Head of Brand Partnerships across The Times and The Sunday Times. In 2018 she was recognised as one of Loyalty Magazine’s 30 under 40 for her work in the partnerships space.

In October 2019, Shelley was instrumental in establishing News UK’s first network for Black, Asian and ethnic minority employees, now called the Cultural Diversity Network, ensuring more meaningful representation across News UK. The Network was foundational in informing News UK’s first D&I strategy, and Shelley was appointed as Head of Creative Diversity in October 2020. In this role she has worked as an advocate for diversity, sharing up-to-date advice and learnings across our titles and radio stations, and extending our networks in the wider community.

In 2022, Shelley was named as a top role model by EMpower, a global list that honours leaders and future leaders who are driving the charge for inclusion in the workplace. And in that same year, named as one of the Media Leaders Future 100 2022.