The head of Sky News is to step down next spring.
In a letter to staff John Ryley said he would treasure his time at Sky and cherish the firm friendships forged.
Ryley began his career as a BBC graduate news trainee and went on to programme edit ITV’s News at Ten before joining Sky in 1995 as an output editor.
He was appointed executive editor in 2000 and head of news six years later.
Ryley will leave the job having told management in 2021 he would serve another two years following the death of his wife Harriet a year earlier.
“It has been my great good fortune to have done the job for so long. But I can’t pretend there haven’t been tricksy days. Leadership of a non-stop news organisation is relentless, in both an enjoyable and, on occasions, an unenviable sense. It makes extraordinary demands not just on the individual in the role, but on family and friends”.
Ryley said he was proud that Ofcom had found Sky News to be the most trusted mews broadcaster in the UK, but also that it was one of the world’s fastest growing news publishers on Tik Tok, indicating a change in the way news is consumed.
“I hope my successor believes in the value of eye-witness journalism putting our camera operators and journalists at the heart of the news and remembers Sky News – at its best – is a challenger brand, and that it’s not the cleverest or biggest news organisation that succeeds but the one most adaptable to change.”
In 2021 Ryley was awarded an Outstanding Contribution Award by the Royal Television Society (RTS), which said he had “effected genuine change in our industry.”
