Digital Journalist

Package Description

Contract: Permanent Full-Time (Hybrid working)

Location: BBC Tees (Middlesbrough)

Band: C

Job Reference: 20970

Salary: £27,300 - £33,000 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. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits- We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days annual leave (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.
  
  

Job Introduction

We are looking for a journalist to join the North East & Cumbria digital team, based in our Middlesbrough newsroom.

The team produces content which serves both local audiences in the region and national and international audiences via the BBC News website and social media.

We are looking for an experienced journalist with substantial experience of working on a platform delivering daily news. 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.

We want a driven and passionate journalist who wants to help reach new audiences with the news that matters to them. The role requires someone who will be keen to do more than just look for press releases – we want original ideas that help reflect our diverse region.

In the role you will cover stories from across the North East and Cumbria but will be particularly responsible for finding stories from our Teesside patch and so the ability to be able to find a steady stream of original stories from across that area is essential.

In the role you will work on news stories, features, explainers and features as well as content for social media. The ability to come up with creative treatments, gain great access to people at the heart of stories and working collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues are essential.

Main Responsibilities

As a Digital Journalist, Your Responsibilities Will Include

• Producing and writing news content for the BBC website and social media accounts for the North East & Cumbria and beyond
• 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
• Being responsible for originating and producing stories for the BBC website which can also be used on other outlets, as well as turning around content from wires and press releases
• Working with colleagues to ensure all our journalism works across digital, TV and radio platforms
• Coming up with story and feature ideas which help us represent the many different sides of life in the region
• Using different news treatments to ensure that our output reflects and appeals to the audiences we serve
• Use social and video to help your journalism travel further either on your own or working with our social and video specialists
• Being adept at technology, picking up new skills and adapting to the changing demands of a digital working environment
  
  

This is a hybrid (mixture of office and remote working) role which requires weekend working and early and late shifts.

Are you the right candidate?

The Ideal Candidate Will Meet The Following Criteria

• Have substantial experience of working in a daily news environment
• The ability to write clean, accurate and concise copy with quick turnaround times
• Have sound editorial judgement, making decisions on matters of editorial sensitivity under pressure
• A good understanding of media law and the BBC’s editorial guidelines
• An ability to deliver original journalism
• 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
  
  

About The BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.