Lee Hill, Journalist, Digital Transformer and Community Engagement Leader, Joins Growing Team
BOSTON (September 23, 2021) – Following a nationwide search, GBH has named Lee Hill the first Executive Editor for GBH News. An award-winning journalist with a deep background in public media, Hill is the executive producer for The Takeaway at WNYC in New York, overseeing editorial strategy, production, and planning of content across platforms for the daily national news program. Hill will join the GBH News team in November.
"Over the past year, GBH News has focused on transforming into a cohesive, audience-focused, multiplatform news organization that tells the most interesting and distinctive local stories of the day,” said Pam Johnston, General Manager for GBH News. "Lee Hill is an exceptional leader with significant experience in helping newsrooms navigate this journey. His outstanding journalism credentials will add to the success of GBH News and help us find innovative ways to reach and engage our expanding audience. We are thrilled to have him join the team."
Hill has a long and successful history inside public media focusing on strong journalism, digital innovation, and audience engagement. Currently executive producer for The Takeaway, a co-production with WNYC, GBH, and PRX, Hill has also directed content strategy and public engagement for New York Public Radio.
As part of its digital transformation, GBH News has created the position of Executive Editor to oversee news content and strategy across platforms and to lead the newsroom's increasing interaction with local communities. A seasoned journalist, Hill will reinforce the impact and importance of local, in-depth coverage and set the tone for the newsroom culture of excellence.
"I am beyond excited to join the powerhouse brand of GBH and its stellar journalists to help an even broader range of Bostonians locate themselves in the stories that shape their world," said Hill. "We'll work to bring original, thought-provoking local news stories to audiences wherever they are — across all platforms, including in-person. I'm looking forward to getting started!"
Before WNYC, Hill was a founding editor of Inside Energy, a Colorado-based journalism collaboration between NPR and PBS stations. In addition, Hill worked as a Public Insight Network (PIN) analyst and reporter at Colorado Public Radio. As a multimedia journalist at NPR in Washington, D.C., he was founding producer of Tell Me More, NPR's first program to begin as a blog and evolve into an award-winning daily news and talk show. Tell Me More won a national Edward R. Murrow Award and was recognized with a "Salute To Excellence Award" by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). In 2013, he was named Broadcast Journalist of the Year by the Colorado Association of Black Journalists. And in 2016, he received the National Association of Black Journalists' "Salute to Excellence Award" for Digital Innovation.
Lee is a graduate of Howard University. He will begin his role at GBH News on November 15, 2021.
About GBH News
GBH News is among the fastest-growing local news providers in Greater Boston and draws on the talent of a multiplatform newsroom that includes GBH 89.7, Boston’s Local NPR; television; and digital reporting. The GBH newsroom continues to invest in substantive local coverage and has established dedicated desks for higher education, politics, innovation and investigations as well as unique partnerships to expand on that commitment, including with WNYC’s The Takeaway, The World from PRX and The GroundTruth Project. GBH News partners with CAI, the Cape and Islands NPR station; and New England Public Media in western Massachusetts to connect the Commonwealth with trusted journalism. GBH News maintains bureaus at the Massachusetts State House; Dorchester, Boston’s largest neighborhood; and Worcester. The Forum Network, part of GBH News, collects thousands of video and audio lectures from the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policymakers and community leaders and makes them available online to the public for free.
