A regional investigative journalist is set to discuss the specialism and its place in modern newsrooms at this years Society of Editors Conference.

Tom Bristow, head of Archant’s investigations unit, will take part in a panel debate at the conference which questions ‘Can investigative journalism survive and thrive in the modern digital newsroom and its pressures?’

Tom’s work at the Eastern Daily Press has led to criminal convictions, and he was also nominated for this year’s Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils.

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a Masters in History and German in 2009, Tom, pictured, joined the Press Association training course, in Newcastle, and has been working as a journalist ever since.

He has also worked for the Liverpool Echo and The Local, in Berlin.

He will be joined on the panel by Paul Henderson, deputy editor of the Daily Mirror and former chief investigative reporter at the Daily Mail, Jane Bradley, a Pulitzer Prize finalist with her work as investigations correspondent at BuzzFeed News and Claire Newell, investigations editor at the Daily Telegraph.

Society of Editors executive director Ian Murray said: “With so many pressures on today’s newsrooms it would be easy for real investigative journalism to wither on the vine, yet experience shows us this is far from the case.

“Can this continue, however, and what steps can be taken to strengthen even further this essential part of the industry and its role in the wider society.”

The conference will take place on 12 November at Stationers’ Hall, in London.