Tom Whiteley Email & Phone Number

I have worked my way up from freelancer to editor-in-chief at the Daily Mash, a digital satire publication which has been operating since 2008. I’ve have written more than 3,000 stories for the site and edited more than 6,000. In 2017 wrote the site’s most successful story ever which claimed the Queen could legally kill Donald Trump. It amassed three million views worldwide, largely from those who thought it was true.As a writer and editor I’ve covered every turning point in recent history: the 2015 general election, the 2016 EU referendum, the election of Trump, the Covid pandemic, Partygate, the death of the Queen, the election of Starmer and the England team’s travails, and on each occasion captured the public mood.During this period I was also a writer on three series of The Mash Report, the BBC2 TV show created using our format, and two series of its Dave successor Late Night Mash. Recently I’ve edited the first Daily Mash book in 14 years, in a new format with 70 per cent original material. I took pitches, commissioned stories, edited and rewrote over a period of four months and delivered a 40,000 word manuscript to be published in October. Throughout I’ve still written for the site every day, managed the release of evergreen content across social media and kept us funny.

Became joint editor after Digitalbox bought the business in 2019. They wanted to expand publication to cover weekends, all bank holidays and a full Christmas schedule which meant designing an editorial process then recruiting and training an editorial team of three, which is still working today.

After success as a writer over 18 months, I was offered the chance to train as an editor. A part-time position at first, which fitted with having a new baby, I steadily took on further editorial responsibilities over the following years.

Online

Began as a freelance writer for the Daily Mash and was swiftly successful. Within months I was pitching and writing multiple stories per week. Took six months’ break while employed by Coventry Building Society before returning in March 2013.

Coventry, United Kingdom

The UK’s third largest building society with 70 branches from Sheffield to Frome, 1,700 employees, 1.5 million members and £21 billion in assets.  New role dealing with internal communications for a thriving and growing financial business Providing full comms support for projects with complex narratives, including writing presentations for exec team, poster campaign, case studies and blogs Writing Chief Executive’s weekly blog, the only leadership channel for the Society, creating new messages while keeping to established style Undertaking first-hand research of audience’s comms needs and outlets by working behind counter in branches and in call centre Managing intranet based on Sharepoint platform, identifying opportunities to create two-way communication channels and conducting audit of content and publishers

Manchester, United Kingdom

The largest mutual business in the UK, with 4,800 retail outlets including banks, convenience stores, pharmacies, and funeral homes, has more than 100,000 employees and gross sales of £13.1 billion in 2011.  Maternity cover secondment for 12 months working in Corporate Communications team Key responsibility to engage audiences of Co-operative colleagues, members and pensioners via email, intranet, social media and print Edited biannual magazine for 55,000 pensioners, wrote, edited and proofed business-specific pages for Pharmacy and Specialist editions of quarterly internal magazine, and contributed to magazine sent to 250,000 active members Worked with senior stakeholders to choose stories, collect information, write copy and manage it through sign-off, arrange photography and proofread Wrote, edited and signed-off copy for Annual and Interim reports to stock market Co-ordinated internal and external communications for major change project merging The Co-operative Travel with Thomas Cook in a joint venture, a high-risk role where the wrong message at the wrong time could have derailed a deal worth millions Developed social media strategy, monitoring and publishing on employee Facebook group and building Twitter presence for senior managers Created and managed comms plans co-ordinating PR, social media and internal comms for varied projects including a managing director’s trip to West Africa Managed projects to develop measurement tools to ensure engagement targets were met and to introduce a face-to-face cascade communication for The Co-operative Food Recorded short films for internal audiences, shooting interviews with executives and project leaders, editing together with B-roll and publishing

The Co-operative Travel Group has sales of £800m and incorporates 450 retail shops, 300 homeworkers, three call centres, an in-house tour operating business, a specialist cruise business, a business travel operation, and a consortium of 150 small retail agencies My core responsibilities within the business are threefold: first, to overhaul our intranet and make it a key communications tool, second, to publish a magazine to encourage employee engagement within the business, and third, to make sure the business is properly represented in Co-operative Group and external publications I've been given positions of trust and responsibility within the Co-operative Group, beginning with a role on the Charity of the Year project board. This meant co-ordinating charity activity and comms surrounding it for 2009, when we raised £4 million for the RNID, and this year I've been been key to the selection process for 2011's charityI work with our PR team to co-ordinate external and internal comms, was on the project board for our first annual fundraising Santa Dash, helped launch The Co-operative Academy at Brownhills, and was project leader for the marketing's team's successful charity fundraiser last year

The Sentinel is a four-edition regional daily newspaper covering North Staffordshire and South Cheshire, with a daily circulation of 75,000 and a broadsheet Sunday newspaper. The features team was one of the largest and strongest in local newspapers, writing for five supplements a week, Sentinel Sunday and the glossy North Staffordshire Magazine, and I quickly learned to tailor my copy for different audiencesMy flair for creative writing attracted attention and within a year I was writing two columns a week giving my unique take on local and national events, one in Wednesday's paper and one in the Sentinel on Sunday, with a brief to challenge the audienceAt the end of 2005 I was named Columnist-Specialist of the Year at the Sentinel Oscars, and in 2006 I was shortlisted for Feature Writer of the Year at the Midlands Media Awards where Sentinel Sunday won Newspaper of the YearI worked as both acting features editor and acting deputy features editor, taking responsibility for a team of seven to organise a diary, arrange photos and ensure that copy was delivered on time, was accurate, and was written to length without spelling or grammatical mistakes

I began my career in journalism in Newport, South Wales, at a daily newspaper with a circulation of 30,000, as a junior reporter covering everything from courts to councils to crime. I learned to produce fast, accurate copy under the pressure of tight daily deadlinesI was given sole responsibility for the arts pages in our Friday supplement Mono, choosing what to cover, arranging pictures and interviews, and co-ordinating with advertisersWorking from our district office in Torfaen I was acting edition manager for six months, co-ordinating the diary for the region and managing two members of staff in a busy news area

Leicester, Tameside And Manchester

Following graduation from university I worked in customer service, debt recovery and telesales roles in Leicester, Tameside and Manchester.

Postgraduate Diploma, Newspaper Journalism

100wpm shorthand, passes in law, local and central government, and a credit in newswriting

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, History, 2:1

A-Levels, History, English Language And General Studies

English Language, English Literature, Maths, Physics, Biology, And History

Six A to C-grade GCSEs