NMG ROUNDTABLE: PRESS CLUB DEBATE 2025 - 24 FEBRUARY

The event took place at Stationers’ Hall on Monday 24 February 2025. The debate and a Q&A session with the audience was followed by networking over a glass of wine and sandwiches.

Chairing the debate was Samantha Simmonds, a senior BBC news journalist who presents BBC Politics London and BBC news and business programmes. As a journalist and broadcaster she has been at the forefront of the news for more than 20 years at the BBC and at Sky News. Samantha covers all of the breaking international and national news of the day interviewing senior political and business leaders from all over the world.

The panel included:

Nusrat Ghani was In July 2024 elected as Chairman of Ways and Means, Principle Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. As Madam Deputy Speaker she supports Mr Speaker and is in the Chair of the House overseeing debates daily in the House of Commons.  

Chris Blackhurst is an award-winning journalist and media advisor. He is a columnist for The Independent and The National and writes regularly for The Standard. He is a former editor of The Independent and for ten years was City editor of the Evening Standard. Before that he worked for The Sunday Times, on its business pages and Insight investigations team. He covered Westminster for several years for The Independent. His writing has appeared in many of the world’s major publications. He is an experienced TV and radio broadcaster, and author of two books, Too Big To Jail and The World’s Biggest Cash Machine.

Anne-Marie Tomchak is a digital executive, broadcaster, writer and documentary maker who has worked for the world’s most globally recognised media brands in news, tech and fashion. She started her career in journalism over 20 years ago in the RTE newsroom in Dublin before moving to the UK to join the BBC where she launched the social media investigative unit BBC Trending in 2013. Over the past decade, Anne-Marie has held senior leadership roles at Mashable, Vogue and now the Mirror where she is Digital Editorial Director. Her work has featured in TIME, Glamour, The Independent, Allbright, Forbes and the Drum. 

She has made two feature length TV documentaries about artificial intelligence for Ireland’s public service broadcaster. "Game Changer: AI and You" (2023) looked at how generative AI is transforming the human experience and “Will A Robot Steal My Job?” (2017) examined the impact of automation and robotics on the workforce. Her documentary work on data privacy and digital wellbeing “Cloud Control: Who Owns Your Data?” (2016) has been added to the Irish curriculum as a learning resource for students and teachers in the Junior Cycle (GCSE). Anne-Marie has also worked as a broadsheet columnist for the Irish Independent writing about digitalisation and decarbonisation and she has run her own business. In 2022 she was selected by Cambridge University as one of their Women In Sustainability Innovation and she is a co-founder of the non profit ShareJoy which sells preloved fashion to raise funds for mental health charities.

Rupert Knowles brings over 30 years of technology transformation experience, with deep expertise in helping media organisations navigate digital disruption. For the past 15 years, he has advised leading publishers and media companies across the UK and Europe through seismic shifts in the industry - from digital publishing to the impact of social media. As CEO of NXT Media Consulting, he works with media enterprises to develop strategies for an AI-enabled future. Rupert is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, and is a member of the Stationers Court.

Emma Loffhagen was feature and culture writer at the Evening Standard for four years, and has been appointed commissioning editor on the culture and lifestyle desks at the Guardian Saturday magazine. She edits the popular Experience column, lifestyle's You Be the Judge, contributes to commissioning across the magazine and edits the newsletter fortnightly. At the Evening Standard, Emma began as an apprentice, where she covered a range of topics including social issues,lifestyle, pop culture, travel and politics. She also had a fortnightly column at the paper, and reported for the paper from across the world, including refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and Lesvos.

The annual debate was held by the London Press Club in association with the Industry Committee of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers and  focused on the biggest current media issue.