I'm Jono Read. I bring together editorial instinct, audience insight and hands-on digital experience to help organisations tell stronger stories, grow communities and make content count.
Audience growth · Social listening · Editorial strategy · Community building
Organisations and publications I've worked with, contributed to or written for.
the GuardianI work at the intersection of editorial judgement, community-building, platform expertise and measurable audience growth.
Leading social strategy for East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, using social listening and community story discovery to sharpen editorial planning, coach teams and grow reach, engagement and referrals.
Helping modernise social strategy across more than 60 regional titles, developing community-led Facebook groups and supporting journalists with social newsgathering and audience discovery.
Helping lead digital operations at The New European, supporting online readership and digital revenue while contributing to fast-turnaround journalism, subscriptions and an award-winning podcast.
I founded Unofficial Mills in 2004 and grew it into an independent radio and entertainment community, reaching a peak of six million monthly page views. It has been a long-running lesson in editorial publishing, audience loyalty and building communities from the ground up.
Coldplay played two relatively intimate stadium shows at Hull’s Craven Park on 18 and 19 August 2025, their only European dates outside London that year. I was quick to flag the announcement and helped shape BBC Humberside’s response, guiding the team through extensive, social-first coverage of the build-up, both concerts and their aftermath.
Our reporting introduced audiences to Raymond, a fan who flew from China to Hull. On the second night, Chris Martin invited him on stage after reading his story on the BBC.
“I read your story on the BBC which said you flew from China to Hull alone.”
Chris Martin's words on stage showed the extraordinary reach of a human story first reported locally. Raymond joined him to sing True Love on 19 August 2025.
Chris Martin · Coldplay, Hull, 2025
To complement our reporting, I used a dedicated Coldplay in Hull Messenger channel to deliver timely updates directly to fans, including news of the first people queuing outside Craven Park.
It was a practical example of bringing event coverage directly to a community, rather than relying on people finding individual posts.
I flagged the concert announcement early, helped set the social coverage approach and guided colleagues through a sustained, people-led event story. That included shaping the presentation and distribution of Raymond’s story across BBC social platforms and providing direct fan updates via Messenger. Coldplay’s invitation to Raymond was the band’s decision.
Original approaches to election journalism, from unexpected candidate interviews to community-led reporting. Creative thinking shaped for BBC social platforms and BBC News, with editorial standards at its heart.
I created an unexpected, quick-fire interview format immediately after the mayoral debate to show another side of the candidates. I directed its social-first presentation and oversaw impartiality and compliance.
Watch the candidate interviews
I developed and commissioned interviews with Grimsby shoppers to bring voices that can be overlooked in election coverage into the conversation, including on the future of their high street. I guided the reporting across BBC social platforms and BBC News, with accuracy, impartiality and platform suitability central to the work.
Watch the Grimsby reportMy role: developing ideas, commissioning journalists, guiding editorial standards and adapting stories for different audiences.
Explore my campaigning workFrom grassroots campaigns that reached national news to sharing digital innovation with local newsrooms, I've spent years helping ideas find an audience.
Independent campaigning, media relations and presentations at journalism conferences, including a session at Facebook's headquarters (now Meta).
Explore campaigns & speakingTechnology should solve an audience problem, not create a new one. I use practical tools such as chatbots to help people access timely, useful information, with strong editorial judgement guiding the experience.
Using chatbots to deliver sports results and match updates directly to audiences, making timely information easier to find and follow.
Using direct-to-audience channels, including a dedicated Messenger channel for Coldplay in Hull, to deliver timely event updates and keep fans engaged.
Platforms change. Formats come and go. But the most effective digital work still starts with curiosity, creativity, strong editorial judgement and a willingness to measure what matters.
Combining community conversations, social listening and audience data to find stories worth investigating, not just posts worth publishing.
Turning those insights into better stories, sharper priorities and platform-appropriate content.
Building meaningful relationships that support discovery, referrals, engagement and loyalty.
Helping people work more confidently and creatively while keeping outcomes in focus.
From newsrooms and national publishers to higher education and independent media, I've helped teams understand audiences and use platforms more effectively.
Audience strategy, newsroom collaboration, social publishing, performance analysis and team leadership across BBC East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire.
Supporting national publishing across the Mirror and Daily Star, shaping platform-specific approaches to drive readership and engagement.
Helping run digital operations, develop online audiences, cover breaking political stories and support subscriptions and revenue.
Group-wide social strategy, community innovation, journalist training and editorial discovery across more than 60 publications.
Leading social channels and recruitment communications, introducing emerging formats and supporting staff training and analysis.
Strong audience strategy isn't just about chasing an algorithm. It's about understanding people.
I'm a social media leader, journalist and writer with more than a decade of experience across regional journalism, national media, digital publishing and higher education.
I've led teams, supported journalists through major stories, pioneered new ways to engage communities and helped news organisations adapt as platforms, formats and audience habits have evolved.
What motivates me is finding the opportunity others haven't spotted yet, using the right mix of data, creativity and editorial judgement to make something genuinely useful to its audience.
Beyond my professional roles, I've run Unofficial Mills since 2004, a hands-on lesson in building loyal audiences and managing an independent publication over the long term.
You might also have spotted me on your For You feed, sharing viral observations about television and popular culture. My posts have travelled across social platforms and have regularly been quoted in newspapers and magazines.
I've always been curious about how media, technology and culture connect. My writing archive is part of that story, and it's not going anywhere.
Great stories start
with listening.
Some of the most important local stories begin in community groups, comments and conversations, long before they reach an official news agenda.
I use social listening to understand what matters to people, surface overlooked story leads and bring community voices into editorial planning.
Find the conversations.
Follow the issues, questions and emerging stories that people are sharing across local communities and social platforms.
Look beyond the numbers.
Use audience signals to see why something matters, whose perspective is missing and where further reporting can add value.
Turn leads into journalism.
Bring ideas to the newsroom, verify the facts and work with journalists to tell stories rooted in the communities they serve.
The tools help spot a signal. Editorial judgement makes it a story.