How ITV News Uses Story-Centric Working to Power Collaboration at Scale

The Challenge: More Stories, More Platforms, Same Resources

Modern newsrooms are expected to produce more content, for more platforms, at greater speed – without increasing resources.

ITV is the leading commercial broadcaster in the United Kingdom. Its news operation spans twelve regions covering England, Wales, the Scottish Borders, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. The national news operations – delivered by ITN under contract to ITV – also includes Scotland.

This means that this challenge plays out at national and regional scale. The organization delivers:

• Around one hundred hours of national and regional news and factual programming each week
• Flagship national shows, regional bulletins, and rolling digital coverage
• Broadcast, social, and online output reaching billions of views annually

As Jon Roberts, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at ITN, explains:

“We’re being tasked with doing more: Working with more types of content and delivering that to more publishing points – and the only way we’re going to be able to do that is if we can make our people more effective.”

The answer wasn’t simply new tools – it was a new way of working.

A Shift to Story-Centric Working

ITV News recognized that a traditional, broadcast-first workflow was no longer enough. Stories now evolve across teams, regions, and platforms, often simultaneously.

Instead of organizing workflows around programs or outputs, ITV News shifted to a story-centric model, where:

• Each story functions as a shared object
• Editorial intent, planning, and resources live in one place
• Broadcast and digital teams work from the same real time view

“Collaboration is one of our biggest focuses,” says Roberts. “We are far more powerful together. The more we connect people around the information they need every day, the better our output will be.”

Wolftech became the platform that enabled this transformation.

One Story, One System: The Role of Wolftech

Before Wolftech, ITV News relied on emails, documents, and disconnected systems to manage coverage.

“Information was in a multitude of places,” says James Webster, reporter at ITV News based at their Leeds studio in Yorkshire.

Elizabeth Fordham, a strategic planner at ITV News based in Leeds, added, “You couldn’t easily see what other regions were doing. There was no real visibility.”

With Wolftech, ITV News now plans, tracks, and delivers stories through a single, shared environment, from early idea through to broadcast and digital output.

“Wolftech is central to how we think about collaboration,” Roberts explains. “From the moment a story exists, through ideation and planning, right through to the running order and digital publishing.”

Wolftech supports:

• Network wide story visibility
• Shared planning across national and regional teams
• Centralized resource management
• Integration between editorial, production, and digital workflows

Clear Benefits for Every Role

Wolftech’s story centric approach scales across roles without adding complexity.

For planners

Elizabeth Fordham highlights the value of instant visibility: “I can see at a glance what other regions are planning, what might impact us, and what I need to factor in.”

For reporters in the field

The Wolftech Go mobile app ensures reporters always have the latest context – without relying on laptops, emails, Google docs, PDFs, print-outs, or phone calls.

“Everything I need is on my phone,” says Webster. “Location, contacts, background, suggested questions – and if anything changes, it’s always up to date.”

For broadcast and digital teams

Wolftech enables continuous collaboration throughout the day, supporting a blended newsroom model.

“The digital team is now central to everything we do,” says Roberts. “Being able to collaborate and share throughout the day is vital as broadcast and digital converge.”

Fewer Silos. Less Duplication. Better Journalism.

By organizing work around stories, ITV News avoids duplicated effort and maximizes shared resources – critical in a high-volume newsroom.

“We don’t have the resource to double up,” says Fordham. “Wolftech helps us plan smarter and work together.”

The result is a newsroom that feels more controlled, more connected, and more creative.

“We’re not scrambling to find information anymore,” Webster adds.

“It’s undeniably more efficient.” And that efficiency has a human impact: “I feel like I have more time to be creative rather than looking after logistics.”

A Single Pane of Glass for the Modern Newsroom

For ITV News, Wolftech is becoming the foundation of a unified newsroom experience.

“Our vision is a single pane of glass,” says Roberts. “Where everyone can easily interact with colleagues, stories, and content in one place.”

Wolftech News complements ITV’s existing Avid for News solution which is the backbone of their production environment for both the network and regional news teams, featuring products such as MediaCentral and iNEWS.

By putting the story at the center, ITV News has built a newsroom that is faster, more collaborative, and better equipped for the future of journalism.