The Guardian is creating a North of England news hub in Manchester, with the aim of significantly extending its coverage of the region and the reach of its newsroom.
Current North of England editor Helen Pidd and prisons correspondent Eric Allison will be joined by Guardian staffer Josh Halliday and new hire Nazia Parveen, who joins from the Daily Mail, as North of England correspondents. Guardian digital trainee Frances Perraudin will also join the team as North of England reporter. All five journalists will work from the Guardian’s existing newsroom in Deansgate, Manchester and report into the national newsdesk.
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media, said: “I’m delighted to be building on the Guardian’s fine heritage in Manchester by putting more reporters on the ground to get scoops, break news and provide context and analysis about the North of England. At a time of unprecedented global reach and influence for the Guardian, we’ll be shedding light on the issues affecting this crucial region and adding a northern perspective to national and global conversations.”
Helen Pidd, the Guardian’s North of England editor, said: “It’s fantastic to welcome Josh, Frances and Nazia to the Guardian’s North of England team - they’re all outstanding journalists with strong connections to the north, and they will bring significant knowledge and expertise to our expanding coverage of the region.”
Nazia Parveen is an award-winning journalist currently serving as a Daily Mail’s North West correspondent. She was born in Birmingham and can speak fluent Urdu. She was announced as Young Journalist of the Year in the annual GG2 Leadership Awards in 2011.
Josh Halliday has been a Guardian reporter since 2010 after joining as a journalism graduate. He has worked on the Guardian’s national news, media and technology desks and hails from Shipley, West Yorkshire.
Frances Perraudin joined the Guardian as a digital trainee in 2013 and is currently covering UK politics from Westminster. Frances is from Sheffield.
Helen Pidd has served as North of England editor since spring 2013 and has been a Guardian journalist since 2004. She is originally from Morecambe, Lancashire.
All journalists will start their new roles in January.
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Notes to editors
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the largest English-speaking quality newspaper websites in the world. Since launching its US and Australia digital editions in 2011 and 2013 respectively, traffic from outside of the UK now represents over two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience.
In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.
The Guardian is most recently renowned for its Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-winning revelations based on the disclosures made by whistleblower Edward Snowden. In 2014, the Guardian was named newspaper and website of the year at the Society of Editors UK Press Awards and is the most trusted news source in the UK (Ofcom digital media report, 2014).
The Guardian is also known for its globally acclaimed investigation into phone hacking, the launch of its groundbreaking digital-first strategy in 2011 and its trailblazing partnership with WikiLeaks in 2010.
