About Us
Promoting mental health in the media
Headlines Network exists to create connections and drive conversations towards improving mental health in the media and communications industries. The past two years have been incredibly difficult for many people working in the news media sector. Many of the challenges that impacted the mental health of journalists in the months and years before the global pandemic have been exacerbated by Covid. The levels of anxiety are unprecedented and yet barriers still exist which prevent many in our profession from speaking openly about their experiences. We want to work with you to create environments where everyone feels safe to acknowledge, support and achieve optimal mental health at work.
Workshops, tips and training
As journalists, we know newsrooms. As mental health thought leaders, we also know how those environments are often ill-suited to supporting journalists’ wellbeing. By combining our experience in the media and mental health spaces, we offer unique training to help you and your colleagues better recognise the language of mental health, spot stress before it stalls you, and thrive. Our pilot project was supported by the Google News Initiative and launched in late 2021. It included interactive workshops for UK journalists across the industry - from entry level to senior management. We were delighted to be joined for the workshops by mental health experts, including Mind, the UK charity, Dr Sian Williams, the broadcaster and counselling psychologist and Dr Mo Qadri from Cast Care Clinic. As part of our next phase of work, we are developing training for managers in newsrooms to help them support their colleagues’ mental health while recognising their own. We have also launched a suite of resources for journalists in an industry-first initiative with the mental health charity Mind. Again, this work has been made possible with the support of the Google News Initiative.
Industry conversations
We understand the value of effective communication and the value of that to role modelling and leadership. We have significant experience in facilitating conversations at an industry level and with individual newsrooms, helping create space so people feel heard and able to share their own experiences. As neutral experts, we have helped bridge the conversations between management and journalists. We have also got extensive experience in advising leaders on how to model the kind of behaviour that helps ensure cultures of compassion, inclusion and empathy.
Our podcast Behind the Headlines was launched in February 2022. In it, we speak with high profile colleagues from across the industry, hearing from them about the stories that have impacted them, how they manage their mental health and why they believe journalism and journalists matter.
Site Content
Our Team
Hannah Storm, Founder and Director
Hannah Storm, Founder and Director
Hannah Storm, Founder and Director
Hannah is the founder of Headlines. A media expert, trainer and thought leader, with global connections, she brings vision, values and empathy and an expertise in journalism safety, mental health, gender and media ethics.
She is the former director of the International News Safety Institute and the Ethical Journalism Network, a sought-af
Hannah is the founder of Headlines. A media expert, trainer and thought leader, with global connections, she brings vision, values and empathy and an expertise in journalism safety, mental health, gender and media ethics.
She is the former director of the International News Safety Institute and the Ethical Journalism Network, a sought-after speaker, facilitator, trainer and writer. Hannah co-authored the first study into moral injury and the media for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism with Professor Anthony Feinstein and has written extensively at the intersection of gender, mental health, physical and online safety. She brings deep-rooted research, practical experience and personal understanding to convene conversations at an industry level to explore challenges and create collaborative solutions to bring change to journalism communities and practice. She is also a qualified Mental Health First Aider with MHFA England.
John Crowley, Director
Hannah Storm, Founder and Director
Hannah Storm, Founder and Director
John is an editor, trainer and consultant with 20 years of journalistic experience managing newsrooms and budgets across a variety of titles. After taking on digital and leadership roles for The Daily Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The Irish Post, he now writes across subjects including technology, business, newsroom ma
John is an editor, trainer and consultant with 20 years of journalistic experience managing newsrooms and budgets across a variety of titles. After taking on digital and leadership roles for The Daily Telegraph, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and The Irish Post, he now writes across subjects including technology, business, newsroom management and sustainability. John, who is regularly asked to speak on the subject of wellbeing in newsrooms, is a trained mental health first aider with MHFA England In November 2020, he co-published a report into wellbeing entitled ‘Journalism in the Time of Covid’.
Behing the Headlines
In our latest podcast, Hannah Storm and John Crowley speak with Bryony Gordon, the award-winning journalist who, alongside an incredibly successful work life has shared candidly her experiences of mental ill health in newspaper columns, podcasts and best-selling books. In this episode, Bryony talks about body positivity, how she has overcome shame and isolation, and how sharing her mental health story as a journalist and writer has become part of her survival.