David Hickey

Journalist I Newsroom manager I Digital transformation leader

United Kingdom

David Hickey is a London-based senior journalism leader and manager with nearly 20 years of experience working in newsrooms, including at the BBC and AP.

He was most recently editor-in-chief at Newsflare, a platform that connects content creators and influencers with publishers and brands utilising AI and analytics. There, he worked across product and engineering to implement successful strategies for the curation, packaging and distribution of relevant content to clients including the New York Times, Reuters and Disney, allowing its newsroom to successfully scale.

David's work has appeared online, in print and on television. His wide range of interviewees includes prime ministers, Nobel Laureates, whistleblowers and rebel leaders. He has produced stories from the field for national television on the turmoil of the Arab Spring (Libya, Egypt), the 2013 Gezi Park riots in Istanbul, Greece's financial collapse and President Obama's first visit to Israel and Palestine. His writing has been published by USA Today, Timeout, CNNGo and Wire among other publications.

Portfolio

Selected feature-length interviews

The Japan Times
07/06/2008
Peace follows turbulent times

It took Tokyo-based author David Peace six novels before he wrote about his adopted city. Now he can't stop. The English author, who made his name with a fictionalised account of Brian Clough’s 44-day reign as Leeds United manager, “The Damned Utd,” tells David Hickey why.

Wire
03/01/2008
Barking practice

The surreal twists in Kan Mikami's musical 'heresies' alienated him from Japan's 1970s acid-folk scene. But since the 1990s he has released a deluge of defiantly raw albums and embarked on genre-defying collaborations.

The Japan Times
05/02/2008
Sex, drugs and sitars

David Hickey finds enlightenment with Hideki Ishima, guitarist with the re-formed Flower Travellin' Band, the early-'70s pioneers of Japanoise and stoner metal.

Planningresource
04/28/2011
Past master

The chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund says that her organisation is ready to enter a new phase of community engagement, reports David Hickey.

Regeneration & Renewal
06/28/2010
Dave Boyle: community defender

A government pledge designed to boost community-led football club ownership could protect the game and aid local areas, says the movement's chief.

Selected feature stories

The Japan Times
05/17/2009
Tokyo's 'song and dance' man

He looks and plays the parts so well, that Tokyo Bob could almost be the Bard of Hibbing himself

Japan Times
10/19/2008
'It’s a great stress reliever, I can tell you'

David Hickey endures 150bpm cyber-rave music at Tokyo's Hell's Gate, home to goth girls in Victorian nightgowns sporting phlebotomy kits and male fake-haired blondies flashing devil horns.

Short-form journalism

The Japan Times
03/21/2008
MY PLAYLIST: Cornelius

Keigo Oyamada stopped writing hits a long time ago. Not playing the pop star suits him just fine. It gives Oyamada - formerly of Flipper's Guitar but better known since 1993 as Cornelius - more time to indulge his multimedia fantasies to the full, as captured on two new DVDs.

Metropolis
08/28/2009
Vinyl idyll

Even as some record shops close, Tokyo remains a haven for vinyl junkies. Here are five of the best

Reporting for television

TV Asahi
05/21/2013
Wading for Western wasabi

David Hickey goes on the hunt for wasabi in deepest Hampshire, at the only farm outside of Japan to freshly grow the superhot delicacy. He discovers the painstaking process behind the notoriously difficult to grow rhizome and finds a Michelin-star chef using wasabi with traditional English beef. (Above link currently private)