James Toney, managing editor
James is the managing editor and board director of Beat Media Group – encompassing News Associates, alongside news and sports agencies Sportsbeat, Storybeat and Kennedy News and Media.
His work appears in news organisations around the world and his reporting – from news to investigations to sport – has taken him to more than 40 countries.
He has been highly commended for his journalism by Press Gazette and was recognised for his commitment to the coverage of the Olympics by being named a torchbearer at London 2012.
James started his career on press agencies and national newspapers, securing his first front page aged 19.
He’s a member of the Society of Editors, the British Olympic Association’s media advisory panel and sits on the board of the Sports Journalists’ Association.
He is a regular commentator on news and sports issues on Sky News, BBC Radio and TalkSport. His first book, Inside Track, was published by Bloomsbury. @jtoneysbeat
Graham Moody, course director
Course director Graham is responsible for the smooth delivery of all postgraduate NCTJ courses at News Associates in London and Manchester.
He has worked in local and national newspapers in a variety of roles from news to sport to leisure. He was a senior reporter on the Olympic News Service at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics and Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. He is also the editor of our in-house Londoner sites. @GrahamMoody
Lucy Dyer, editorial development director
Lucy is our editorial development director with responsibility for securing our trainees – across all postgraduate and undergraduate courses – their pathways into journalism. She heads up our marketing and admissions teams and works alongside Graham Dudman building partnerships in the industry.
She is a former editor with a passion for social media and emerging digital platforms.
Lucy is a trained first aider and mental health first aider. @lucyedyer
Graham Dudman, deputy managing editor
Graham is the deputy managing editor at News Associates, his role includes maintaining relationships with national news organisations alongside delivering the NCTJ essential journalism module and ensuring our trainees are newsroom ready.
He started his career in local newspapers in Manchester and left News UK after 20 years in 2015. He held a number of positions at The Sun, including head of news, head of features and managing editor and spent several years on the paper’s editing rota.
More recently he was News UK’s editorial development director, working across The Times, Sunday Times and The Sun. He sits on the Newspaper Licensing Agency and is a member of the accreditation board at the National Council for the Training of Journalists. A former board member of the Society of Editors, he is a long-standing judge for the national press awards. @GrahamDudman
Alice Walker Gregory, head of journalism Manchester
Alice is the head of journalism at News Associates and leads the delivery of our undergraduate and postgraduate NCTJ courses in Manchester. She is a very experienced NCTJ journalism tutor and leads on the essential journalism syllabus in our Manchester centre but can teach across the whole diploma. Before moving into journalism training Alice had an illustrious career working at national newspapers. @alicerwalker
Angela Catto, shorthand tutor
With decades of experience, Angela Catto is our lead shorthand tutor for all full-time NCTJ courses in London. She is also a member of the NCTJ’s shorthand board. @teeline
Ben Thompson, journalism tutor
Ben is an NCTJ qualified journalist and teaches several modules in Manchester. Before joining News Associates, he worked for Kennedy News and Media where he worked on stories for national newspapers and websites. His work has appeared in The Mail Online, The Manchester Mill and LadBible, among others. @BOThompson98
Charlie Moloney, law tutor
Charlie teaches media law and court reporting in London, drawing on his extensive experience as a reporter covering court cases, tribunals, inquests , and investigations for national newspapers. He won the Sky Sports News 120wpm shorthand award 2019-20 and the Oxford University Press media law award 2017-18 for achieving the best exam result that year. Charlie regularly works news desk shifts for the Times, the Guardian, the Mail+ and the Mail on Sunday. @CharlieMoloney
Diarmuid Burke, journalism tutor
Diarmuid is an NCTJ-trained journalist with a background in social media management and content creation. Having worked in politics in Ireland and the UK, Diarmuid specialises in teaching social media and public affairs. He also runs a news and politics TikTok account, discussing the biggest news stories from across Europe. @diarmuidgburke
Gemma Bradley, journalism tutor
Gemma is an NCTJ and NQJ-qualified journalist with experience covering crime, politics, and breaking news locally and nationally. She also worked as a media officer for a large UK charity before briefly working as a business journalist in Australia. She teaches a variety of modules, specialising in digital journalism, media law and PR. @GemBrad
Gracie Daw, editorial development assistant
Gracie is an NCTJ-qualified journalist, having completed her diploma at News Associates. She is responsible for outreach with schools and universities, focusing on building relationships with prospective journalists. Gracie is interested in political journalism, having completed her BA in History and Politics. @graciefdaw
Kieran Wellington, journalism tutor
Kieran is the lead shorthand tutor on our part-time courses in London. He is also an assistant producer at LBC and so regularly runs broadcast journalism sessions with our trainees. He has a passion for sport and previously worked on the Love Sport Radio breakfast show. @KieranWelly
Kiro Evans, journalism tutor
Kiro is an NCTJ-trained journalist who has worked in news and sport across local and national newspapers. He has a passion for sport – particularly football and Formula One – but his interests also stretch to social issues, current affairs and almost everything else.
Tom Holmes, journalism tutor
Tom is an NCTJ-trained journalist with a passion for sport. He writes and edits across our network of sites and is deputy editor of South West Londoner. Tom regular appears on local radio station Riverside Radio, and teaches across the NCTJ syllabus in London, specialising in reporting and sports journalism. @tom_journo
Paul Kilbey, journalism tutor
Paul teaches numerous classes in Manchester, specialising in public affairs. He took his NCTJ at News Associates in 2020-21 after years of specialist journalism work, and was shortlisted for the NCTJ’s Student of the Year award. He has written on classical music for many years, with articles in publications including the Guardian and Gramophone. As a freelancer he has done everything from book editing to social media consultancy. @paulkilbey
Phil Wilkinson, journalism tutor
Phil teaches across the syllabus on all of our courses in Manchester. Having cut his teeth as a news reporter, he spent many years as a sports journalist and sports editor. He has written for various national newspapers, has experience of working in radio and has written five books. He also has a part-time sub-editor role with the Daily Star and Sunday Express. @PWilkinsonWIG
Plamedi Mbungu, marketing and admissions assistant
Plamedi is a recent Kingston University journalism graduate and former editor of The River Newspaper. Now, he will be repurposing the multimedia skills he cultivated at Kingston by running our social media channels, aiding admissions, and event planning. Plamedi also works as a freelance journalist for media publications 9Bills and Mixtape Madness. @plamedimbungu19