Naja Nielsen spent six years at the BBC as digital director, where she led the newsroom's digital journalism through the pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war and the UK and US elections.

She also oversaw changes to the news app, BBC's launch on TikTok, news formats for election voters, the analysis section BBC In Depth and an overall push towards serving the needs of digital audiences.

But a new challenge lies ahead for Nielsen, as she joins Swedish public broadcaster, SVT, as media director on 1 June. But before then, she delivers the keynote speech at our next Newsrewired conference on 13 May 2025, setting the tone for a day of discussing the cutting edge of digital journalism. Check out the full agenda and grab your tickets whilst you can.

We caught up with Nielsen ahead of time to reflect on her accomplishments at the BBC and explore her vision for the future of public broadcasting in the Nordics. The interview has been edited for brevity.

Q: What stands out as your proudest achievement at the BBC?

My achievements are also the product of my colleagues, my bosses, my teams. When you take on leadership responsibilities, your decisions and the people you hire do have real effects, but we have very much worked as a team.

Sometimes what I simply did was give people permission to do what they knew was right. There are many experts within organisations who know the right thing to do but are not necessarily in positions of power. With the size of the BBC, it is tempting to try to do everything at once, which is a common mistake big companies make. I simply helped everyone focus on the must-win battles.

Q: Give me an example of a must-win battle.

Over the last decade, audiences developed different needs - they want to follow news as it unfolds, while also wanting more quality, immersive and in-depth reporting.

We doubled down on the live bit, creating a live team and live pages, but in a way aligned with the BBC. From the outset, we made sure our expert journalists, the big personalities everyone connects with the BBC, were delivering their analysis and context into the live coverage. This is really important for public service because everyone can do breaking news, but only the BBC........

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