The political editor of a newspaper or broadcaster is the senior political reporter who covers politics and related matters for the newspaper or station. They may have a large team of political correspondents working under them. In publishing, because of their seniority, a political editor's

byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably ''Reader's D ...

is often added to stories which actually are the work of more junior colleagues to give the story more credibility and to indicate their seniority within the publication. The political editor usually carries out the major interviews with a country's

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

and senior government figures and covers major events like

party conference The terms party conference (UK English), political convention ( US and Canadian English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party membe ...

United Kingdom

Broadcast journalism

BBC News

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

introduced the role of political editor in 1970. In addition to the nation-wide political editors, Glenn Campbell has been political editor for

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. I ...

since 2021, Felicity Evans has been political editor for

BBC Cymru Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

since 2018 and

Nicholas Watt Nicholas Watt is a journalist. In 2016 he became political editor of the BBC's ''Newsnight''. Early life Watt attended King's College School in Wimbledon before studying History at the University of York between 1986 and 1989, going on to s ...

has been political editor for ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

'' since 2016.

ITV News

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...

produces news programmes for

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and Channel 5. The ITN brand was used on ITV until 1999, when it was rebranded as

ITV News ITV News is the branding of news programmes on the British television network ITV. ITV has a long tradition of television news. Independent Television News (ITN) was founded to provide news bulletins for the network in 1955, and has since conti ...

. Additionally,

Bernard Ponsonby Bernard Ponsonby is a Scottish broadcast journalist for regional news and current affairs programming for STV. He joined the station in 1990 and was appointed political editor in 2000, following the retirement of longstanding political editor F ...

has been the political editor for

STV News ''STV News'' is a Scottish news service produced by STV. The news department produces two regional services covering STV's Channel 3 franchise areas of Northern and Central Scotland. STV's news programmes are produced from studios in Glasgow ...

in Scotland since 2000, when he replaced Fiona Ross.

Channel 4 News

Political editors for

Channel 4 News ''Channel 4 News'' is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982. Current productions ''Channel 4 News'' ''Channel 4 News'' ...

include: *

Elinor Goodman Elinor Mary Goodman (born 11 October 1946) is a UK journalist, best known as political editor of Channel 4 News from 1988 to 2005. She was educated at the Manor House School, an independent school in Surrey, England. Goodman joined Channel 4 Ne ...

, 1988–2005 *

Gary Gibbon Gary Gibbon (born 15 March 1965) is an English journalist. He has been the political editor of ''Channel 4 News'' since 2005. Previously, he had served as the programme's political correspondent since 1994. He has worked on four general electio ...

, 2005–present (also political correspondent 1994–2005)

5 News

ITN produced the

5 News ''5 News at 5'', also known as ''Channel 5 News'', is the news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5, produced by ITN from its main newsroom on Gray's Inn Road, London. History ''5 News'' was one of the new station's flagship programme ...

programme for Channel 5 from the channel's launch in 1997 until 2005 and again from 2012, with

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

providing news coverage in the intervening years. Andy Bell has been the programme's political editor since 1999.

Sky News

launched in 1989 with

Adam Boulton Thomas Adam Babington Boulton (born 15 February 1959) is a British journalist and broadcaster who is regular panelist on TalkTV. He was formerly editor-at-large of Sky News, and presenter of ''All Out Politics'' and ''Week In Review''. He is al ...

as political editor.

Faisal Islam Faisal Islam ( bn, ফয়সাল ইসলাম; born 29 May 1977) is a British political and economics journalist who is the economics editor of BBC News and the occasional presenter of ''Newsnight''. He was the political editor of Sky N ...

took over the role in 2014 before moving to the BBC as Economics Editor in 2019. Islam was replaced as Sky's political editor by his former deputy,

Beth Rigby Elizabeth Frances Rigby (born 19 February 1976) is a British journalist. She has worked for Sky News since 2016 and became its political editor in 2019. She has previously worked as a newspaper journalist for the ''Financial Times'' and ''The ...

Print journalism

''The Guardian''

''The Sun''

''The Sunday Times''

Rest of the world

New Zealand

Patrick Gower Patrick Gower (born 1976/1977) is a New Zealand political journalist and National Correspondent for ''Newshub'' (formerly called 3 News)''.'' Prior to his current role he was Newshub's political editor. Early life Gower grew up in New Plymouth ...

(

Newshub ''Newshub'' (stylised as ''Newshub.'') is a New Zealand news service that airs on the television channels Three and Eden, as well as on digital platforms. It formerly operated across radio stations run by MediaWorks Radio until December 202 ...

) - 2012–2018

United States

* Brooke Brower (

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

) - 2017-present * Patrick Healy (''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'') - 2018-present * Chris Stirewalt (

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

) - 2010-present * Peter Wallsten (''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'') - 2013-present

References

Journalism occupations Types of editors {{Journalism-stub