Digital Journalist, North East & Cumbria

JOB BAND: C
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: BBC North East & Cumbria digital
LOCATION: Newcastle, Middlesbrough or Carlisle (three days a week of office working and two days at home)
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £27,600 - £34,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Join the North East & Cumbria digital team and produce content which serves both audiences in the region and national and international audiences via the BBC News website and social media. This will primarily be a digital writing role with an emphasis on digital-first storytelling online on the BBC news website and on social media platforms, but you will be expected to tell your stories across radio and TV too and you will be given the training to do that if needed.

Please note: This role requires weekend working and early and late shifts and is a mixture of office and remote working, with three days a week working in one of the offices in the region. The successful candidate will be based in the North East & Cumbria.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
Are you a driven and passionate journalist who wants to help reach new audiences? The role requires someone who is keen to do more than just look for press releases – we want original ideas that help reflect the diverse audience in the North East & Cumbria. You will work on news stories, features, explainers and features. The ability to come up with creative treatments, gain great access to people at the heart of stories and work collaboratively are essential.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:

• Producing and writing news content for the BBC website
• The ability to produce fast, accurate copy to tight deadlines
• Understanding how to use images, video and headlines to enhance your copy and make it appealing to our audience
• Responsible for originating and producing stories for the BBC website which can also be used on TV and radio, as well as turning around content from wires and press releases
• Coming up with story and feature ideas which help us represent the many different sides of life in the region

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

• Substantial experience as a daily news journalist working on a newspaper, news website, news agency or other newsroom
• Experience of writing tight, accurate and impartial news stories to tight deadlines
• A good understanding of media law and the BBC’s editorial guidelines
• A good understanding of social media platforms both for sharing content and finding stories
• Experience of using social listening tools to find stories which are engaging our audience

DESIRABLE:

• Be familiar with social media in a news context and know how to make the most of various platforms to reach a range of audiences
• Understanding of SEO within a news context to help our stories reach the people most interested in and impacted by them
• An understanding of using audience analytics to inform our journalism
• A keen eye for strong imagery to make stories stand out online and be able do basic photo editing

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

#LI-BD1

Disclaimer

This is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]