Description
Newsquest South West is looking for a new reporter to join our team working across our titles in Somerset and Devon.
This role is suited to a full-time trainee who has completed their NCTJ diploma or a senior reporter working four days a week. The ideal candidate would be ready to make an immediate impact reporting on an area with big ambitions and bags of potential.
You will be part of a team that produces the Weston Mercury and North Somerset Times. We need a reporter who will also take ownership of growing our online audience in the wider Devon and Somerset areas.
This is an exciting and varied job. You could be doing a Facebook Live report from a town centre during a food festival, running a live blog from a breaking news incident, and writing a heart-warming community story all on the same shift.
The role will involve occasional weekend work as part of a rota, once you’ve established yourself in the team.
We’ll give you the on-the-job training and support needed to help you become a first-class reporter in a lively patch, working for one of the UK’s biggest news publishers.
About you
This role suits a reporter who can make an impact, with big ideas and ambitions, an eye for a story and a flair for social media.
You’ll be expected to make contacts on your patch and find great stories. As a reporter you must be there at the best and worst times in people’s lives, and you need to handle both appropriately. You could be talking to business owners about how they are tackling the cost-of-living crisis, talking to people who have suffered bereavement or injustice, or interviewing a local political figure.
Our reporters are expected to meet audience and subscription benchmarks, which means learning how to find a good story, how to tell it across different platforms and how to get it in front of more people through social media and SEO.
The ideal candidate will already have the gold standard NCTJ diploma including shorthand and a driving licence, but the right attitude is more important.
We are an inclusive workplace and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.
We don’t expect you to know it all on day one, but we do expect a can-do attitude and keenness to learn. If you do, you’ll get lots of support and be part of a great team.
A name you can trust - we’ve been a part of your community for generations.
LOCALiQ is the name for all that Newsquest Media Group does today, from trusted local newspapers and websites to digital marketing services that can help you reach new customers as you’ve never been able to before.
LOCALiQ is the name that combines your trusted local news brand with digital marketing.
It hasn’t replaced the name of your local Newsquest newspaper and its website, but it encompasses everything we can offer.
Those services include online advertising and best-in-class digital marketing, backed by data gathered from our 1.5 million local campaigns and 45 million monthly users.
Put our experts to work for you, and we believe you’re hiring the best marketing partner a business can have.