Jono Read / Campaigns & speaking

Good ideas deserve to be heard.

From independent campaigns that became national news to presenting practical digital innovation to journalists, I've spent years using communication to bring people together and help ideas travel further.

#SaveBBC3 · 271,886 signatures displayed at the BBC in February 2015

Sky News appearance · 25 March 2010

Conferences · Digital newsroom innovation

01 / Independent campaigns

From social media to national conversations.

Before my work in senior newsroom roles, I built and led digital campaigns around broadcasting, public services and regional communities. Each involved building support, communicating a clear case and working with journalists to bring the issue to a wider audience.

Petition boxes reading 271,886 Save BBC Three outside the BBC, during the February 2015 campaign
17 February 2015 · Outside the BBC with MP John McDonnell during the #SaveBBC3 campaign.
Broadcasting / 2014–2016

#SaveBBC3

271,886

Signatures shown on petition boxes during the February 2015 handover.

I founded and led #SaveBBC3, turning an online petition into a sustained national campaign. I organised the petition and handover, wrote press releases and supporter updates, coordinated social channels and creative materials, and dealt with national media interviews, events and supporters. The campaign attracted celebrity backing and extensive national coverage.

The petition boxes at the February 2015 handover displayed 271,886 signatures. BBC Three later returned to linear television in 2022; I do not claim that the campaign alone caused that decision.

Read my original BBC Three analysis ↗
Grassroots campaigning / 2010

Leave Our Cider Alone

I launched and ran the online response to proposed changes to cider duty, creating content, growing its Facebook community and fielding national media enquiries. The group had 54,772 members reported in April 2010 — a reminder of the reach that grassroots social organising could achieve long before today's creator platforms.

On 25 March 2010, I appeared on Sky News as a cider campaigner. The footage gives a glimpse of how social media campaigns were already finding national audiences.

Watch the Sky News footage ↗
Sky News broadcast screenshot with caption Cider Campaigner Jono Read
Sky News · 25 March 2010. Image supplied for use on this website.
Regional economy / Community campaigning

Saving Cromer’s crab industry

I founded Keep It Cromer, a grassroots campaign responding to proposals threatening the town's crab-processing industry and local jobs. I developed the distinctive lobster-themed campaign identity and worked on public stalls, banners, petitions, design, printed materials and press activity.

The campaign brought together workers, residents and representatives from different political backgrounds. At one rally I wore a giant crab costume — captured in the North Norfolk News — as we fought to make the future of local jobs impossible to ignore.

The original newspaper report provides a record of the rally and my participation.

North Norfolk News clipping: Politicians join giant crabs in rally to save local firm, with Jono Read pictured in a crab costume
North Norfolk News · Report: Steve Downes · Photograph: Andreas Yiasimi. Open image to read the clipping.
Public services / North Norfolk

Act on Ambulances

I founded and ran Act on Ambulances to challenge proposed changes to ambulance provision in North Norfolk, organising petitions, press activity and public engagement to highlight concerns about emergency response times in rural communities. The campaign secured 6,503 supporters.

The campaign secured support from public figures, including Stephen Fry and Roger Lloyd-Pack, and recognition from Ed Miliband. An Eastern Daily Press report recorded Roger Lloyd-Pack's concerns and plans for ambulance service leaders to meet campaigners.

Contemporary press coverage documents the public concerns and response at the time.

Eastern Daily Press clipping of 29 August 2012: Changes 'put lives at risk', featuring actor Roger Lloyd Pack and the ambulance campaign
Eastern Daily Press · 29 August 2012 · Report: Adam Lazzari. Open image to read the clipping.
02 / Speaking & innovation

Sharing what works,
and challenging how newsrooms work.

I've presented at local journalism and industry events, including at Facebook's headquarters (now Meta), on social discovery, audience engagement and making innovative tools useful in everyday editorial practice. I also contributed to discussions at Behind Local News, sharing experience of bringing digital audience thinking into regional journalism.

Jono presenting a slide on CrowdTangle as a culture change for local newsrooms
Digital tools as a culture changeSpeaking about how tools such as CrowdTangle could help journalists use social signals, find stories and shape newsroom agendas, rather than simply monitor platforms.
Jono speaking with a microphone on a panel in front of a Behind Local News screen
Behind Local NewsContributing to an industry panel discussion on how local publishers and journalists can develop their approaches to audiences and digital storytelling.

The common thread across my speaking and campaigning has been making digital work practical: understanding communities, using evidence to make better decisions and helping other people feel confident trying something different.