Northern Echo Live Reporter
Are you an ambitious reporter with a keen eye for a great local story and the drive to make your mark in digital journalism?
We have a rare opportunity to join The Northern Echo’s team of live news journalists, covering communities across Sunderland, Hartlepool and East Durham.
You’ll be at the forefront of modern local journalism, combining strong traditional reporting skills and news sense with digital tools and technology to create engaging local and hyper-local content for our growing online audiences.
This is a proactive role where you’ll need to understand what audiences want to read, respond quickly to breaking stories and find the angles that matter most to local communities.
Key Responsibilities
- Source, write and deliver engaging local and hyper-local news stories
- Cover communities across Sunderland, Hartlepool and East Durham
- Identify breaking news, emerging stories and topics that matter to local audiences
- Create first-class digital content across a range of platforms
- Use digital tools and technology to enhance storytelling and audience engagement
- Apply strong news judgement to the sourcing, selection, angle and presentation of stories
- Use audience and content analytics to understand performance and help drive readership growth
- Ensure all content meets high standards of accuracy and quality
- Work within media law, privacy, copyright and plagiarism guidelines
- Continually develop your journalistic, digital and technical skills
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- Strong news sense and the ability to spot an engaging local story
- Excellent writing, reporting and communication skills
- A proactive approach to finding and developing stories
- Good understanding of digital journalism and online audiences
- Confidence using technology and digital publishing tools
- Ability to work quickly and accurately in a fast-paced newsroom
- Good understanding of media law, accuracy, privacy and journalistic standards
- NCTJ qualification or NCTJ prelims for trainee applicants
- Knowledge of Sunderland, Hartlepool, East Durham and the wider local patch would be advantageous
- Enthusiasm for local journalism and a genuine interest in the communities you’ll be covering
Benefits
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays + your birthday off
- Holiday buy scheme for extra flexibility
- Structured career progression & ongoing training
- Pension plan
- Employee Helpline counselling and advice
- Perks & discounts including:
- Gym membership
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Eye care
- Retail discounts
- Team building days & annual volunteer charity day
About Newsquest Media Group
We are a media company with a difference. We are committed to bringing a voice to your region by investing in a passionate team of journalists who proudly serve their communities by sharing authoritative news that readers trust. Our sales teams provide local businesses with highly responsive digital advertising and marketing solutions.
We are one of the largest regional news publishers in the UK and have a portfolio of more than 250+ local news brands and magazines online and in print. With an online audience of 41 million users a month and 7 million readers a week in print, our content is read by a substantial proportion of the UK population.
In addition to our local news brands, we own several digital pure play and specialist media businesses such as s1jobs and s1homes, Exchange & Mart, and Newsquest Specialist Media. We also own LOCALiQ, an award-winning digital marketing agency that specialises in driving more leads, increasing online growth and generating return on marketing investment on behalf of thousands of UK SMBs.
