TOPLINE

Rob Hugh-Jones

Rob Hugh-Jones is currently Editor of the BBC Partner Hub. Before that, he was Managing Editor of WNYC's The Takeaway, and Managing Editor of PRI's The World, produced with WGBH in Boston. Rob also served as The World's BBC bureau chief for several years. Rob completed his graduate studies at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, so his knowledge of the United States – and American radio audiences – runs deep.

Rob has also worked across many other parts of the BBC. He started as a local reporter in London, then various regions of the UK. He served as news bulletin writer in the BBC World Service newsroom for two years, then as Producer on Newshour, and Senior Producer on Outlook. Rob moved to BBC TV for four years, working on award-winning documentaries for BBC 1 and 2 (the primary BBC TV networks) including Panorama (the BBC's investigative current affairs flagship, which compares to PBS Frontline).

Rob has been steeped in international news for the best part of 20 years. He lived in Africa and North America as a child, and is very well travelled. He has covered numerous, momentous global news stories, including the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997, and the seminal Bonn conference in Germany right after 9/11, which plotted a way forward for the U.S., and allies in Afghanistan and beyond.

Rob and his wife Alice live south of London and have a very sporty nine-year-old son, Leo, who is crazy about football (soccer) and cricket (you know, that baseball-kind-of-game the Brits and others continue to play!).  

Rich Preston

Rich is a senior foreign news journalist and presenter, seen on BBC World TV and heard on the BBC World Service reporting international stories for audiences around the world.

Rich covers major international events and significant stories, most recently including the Trump impeachment inquiry, waves of anti-government protests across the Middle East and Europe, and was the first BBC news reporter to cover the first death from coronavirus – and continued to follow the story as it unfolded around the world.

He's worked from Europe to West Africa, and above the Arctic Circle. He previously covered western Europe, reporting some of the most significant events to shape the continent in generations, including the migrant crisis, the Scottish Independence Referendum, terror attacks in France and Belgium, and the UK’s Brexit vote.

As host of BBC Topline, Rich shares the most important global stories with listeners across the US.

Jonathan Frewin

After graduating from the London School of Economics, Jonathan Frewin started his career at the BBC in 2002 as a radio studio manager, working initially with language services, then moving on to the full complement of BBC World Service news programmes.

He moved into the business and economics unit a short time later, working first as a radio producer on World Business Report, then becoming features and planning editor for that programme as well as Business Daily. He was the first social media manager for BBC Business, launching the pan-departmental Facebook page in 2010, and introducing many correspondents to some of the benefits of Twitter, just as it was becoming an indispensable tool for journalists. In 2012 he moved to Dubai for two years as a self-shooting and editing TV reporter, working on the weekly BBC World News show Middle East Business Report.

After playing a role in the original founding of the BBC-Marketplace partnership, from 2014, Jonathan worked as senior producer and reporter for the arrangement, largely helping to ensure BBC content reaches American audiences through Marketplace Morning Report, including on the edition made by the BBC in London, as well as providing material for the PM edition of the show. Starting in 2022, he now works with the BBC World Service Partner Hub in London.