Assistant Showbiz Editor – The Sun (London)
Assistant Showbiz Editor
Do you love celebrities, watching TV (and getting paid for it) and can spot a great showbiz story in amongst the social media maze? Are you obsessed with everything from Love Island to the soaps and know your Big Brother housemates from the brides and grooms on MAFS? Do you want to work for the UK’s No1 showbiz team? Well, we’re hiring!
We are The Sun: The Sun is the most popular newsbrand in the UK, reaching 31.1 million people a month across digital and print. The Sun is at the heart of the nation’s conversation, blending serious investigations, agenda-setting campaigns, political scoops and celebrity gossip. More than a newspaper. The Sun is an instigator, an entertainer, a cultural reference point, a finger on the pulse, a daily relationship.We have a talented, diverse team who publish the best coverage of news, sport, lifestyle and showbiz in print and digital.
Your Role: You will deliver the latest exciting entertainment news to our loyal online audience who rely on us for all the up-to-the-minute gossip. You will be working for The Sun’s fast-paced digital operation, writing about the biggest TV shows, our readers’ favourite famous faces and beating our rivals to the hottest showbiz stories.
Day to day you will:
- Write sparkling, snappy copy in The Sun’s unique, lively and inimitable tone.
- Assign briefs to reporters.
- Watch live TV, whether it be daytime shows, soaps or primetime reality, and be able to pull out the strongest, newsiest lines that will engage our readers.
- Keep across the social media activity of all The Sun’s go-to celebs and TV shows to ensure we know the latest dramas and developments, the minute they happen.
- Build copy in CMS (WordPress) and liaise with picture desk and video team to add in relevant imagery and clips.
- Generate ideas and pitch them to the Showbiz Editor leading the shift
- Recognising and acting upon any potential legal issues and acting in accordance with the PCC Code of Conduct.
- Maintain a wide knowledge of showbiz, current affairs and trends through reading various titles, especially our closest competitors, and listening to the latest podcasts.
What we’re looking for from you:
We’re looking for someone with experience working as a showbiz journalist, especially working on a celebrity or entertainment website, be brimming with new ideas, have a bulging contacts book and thrive working in an exciting, fast-paced environment.
- Unflappable under pressure and delivers work at a consistently high standard.
- Keen attention to detail and meticulous fact-checking.
- Can easily spot an engaging showbiz newsline when watching TV/ listening to podcasts/ scrolling through social media and pitch angle/ headline to the Showbiz Editor
- Able to write copy and build stories to a fast, live deadline, while maintaining quality.
- Proactive and displays a willingness to take on any task.
- Positive can-do attitude and good team player.
- Self-starter, organised and a good problem-solver, able to eliminate obstacles through creative and adaptive approaches.
- Can demonstrate an understanding of The Sun brand, both print and digital.
- Flexibility to work nights and weekends over a seven-day rota pattern.
We are News UK: One of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland, our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio, and we have market-leading local radio stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning digital and print, audio and video, events and experiences, our brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. News UK is wholly owned by News Corp.
Life at News: At News UK our people are our heartbeat – they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive. Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like. Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.
We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes. We also have 11 employee-led networks.
We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes:
- Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions.
- Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes.
- ‘Bikes for Work’ scheme.
- Physio/massage.
- Counselling.
- 30 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
- Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
- Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.
News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.