Factual indie Brinkworth (Surgeons: A Matter of Life and Death, Accused: Guilty or Innocent? and Thames Water: Inside the Crisis) has hired Yara Silva as Digital Director.
Silva will build Brinkworth’s first in-house digital publishing and ventures function. She will set strategy for the company’s owned channels, turn its catalogue into platform-native content, launch new talent-led digital ventures and manage relationships with YouTube, Meta and TikTok.
She joins from Reach plc, where she was most recently Head of Content at Reach Studio. There she led a 53-person team across video, podcast and branded content for titles such as the Mirror, Express, Daily Star and OK! Magazine.
Before that, she spent five years as Reach’s Group Head of Social Media. In that time, she oversaw the growth of Reach Nationals’ Facebook pages into the most engaged news pages in the world, achieved billions of video views and launched dozens of social media accounts that grew to millions of followers. Her teams won the Cannes Lions Bronze award for the Daily Star’s Liz Truss lettuce livestream, as well as accolades at the British Journalism Awards, AOP Awards and Future of Media Awards.
Earlier in her career she held social and digital roles at MailOnline, HELLO! and the Guardian, and she has taught on City University of London’s Social & Digital Journalism MA.
Malcolm Brinkworth, CEO, said “I am really delighted that Yara is joining us. She has built a highly respected reputation for success, delivering real value across her portfolios. Now she is coming to Brinkworth with a mandate to create our first in-house digital publishing and ventures division.
“The appointment marks a strategic shift for Brinkworth. Following award-winning success in the UK and internationally with our unscripted slate, we are committed to building a new direct-to-audience business alongside our commissioned programmes.”
Yara Silva said, “I’ve spent my career getting stories in front of audiences on social and digital. Brinkworth has some of the best stories on television, built on access most can only dream of. I can’t wait to start building an audience that comes to Brinkworth directly for more stories in different formats. Watch this space!”
Jon Creamer
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