Emily Jane Bell (born 14 September 1965)^[1] is a British academic and journalist. She is Professor of Professional Practice at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (Columbia School of Journalism)^[2] and the Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, part of the CSJ,^[3] in New York City. Before taking up her academic post at the Tow Center in 2010, Bell had worked for The Guardian and Observer newspapers since 1990.^[4]

Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk,^[1] Bell read jurisprudence at Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated in 1987.^[2] She began her career on Big Farm Weekly that year, and then joined Campaign, the magazine for the advertising business, in 1988.^[5] In 1990, Bell joined The Observer as a business reporter^[6] becoming Media Business Editor in 1995, deputy business editor,^[7] and then Business Editor during 1998.^[5] In June 2000, Bell became executive editor of the Media Guardian website,^[8] and editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited in February 2001.^[9]

In September 2006, Bell was appointed to the board of Guardian Newspapers Ltd and assumed the role of director of digital content for Guardian News and Media.^[10] Emily Bell became a non-executive director of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group, in January 2013.^[11]

Bell is an editor of Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State,^[12] published by Columbia University Press in March, 2017. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.