Reporter – Galashiels

Newsquest Scotland is seeking a top-class reporter to join its team in the beautiful Scottish Borders.

Passionate about digital storytelling, hard-working, full of ideas and innovative, you will be adept at presenting stories across various platforms.

We are looking for an ambitious, digitally skilled, versatile journalist to cover breaking news
and unearth and write engaging stories for our two titles, the Border Telegraph and the Peeblesshire News.

Key Responsibilities

A major part of the job will be developing relationships and understanding what matters to the local community, as well as immersing yourself in social media.

You will also be open-minded and willing to utilise the benefits of AI.

We want to tell the stories our audiences care about – from covering crime and local politics to sharing powerful human interest pieces and championing the causes our readers are passionate about.

There may also be opportunities in this varied role to cover sport and assist our content editor with our print editions.

The job will primarily be based at our office in Galashiels, with some home working possible.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Ideally, you will be a fully qualified reporter with gold-standard NCTJ accreditation, 100wpm shorthand, and some experience in a busy news publication.

You will also:

Be brimming with ideas on how to tackle the remit and get the most out of it digitally
Have a full understanding of what digital readers want from local news coverage
Be excellent at developing relationships with key contacts to improve coverage
Be driven to succeed using the digital analytics tools at your disposal
Be a self-starter, brilliant with time management
Be passionate about social media
Have an excellent knowledge of media law
Have a versatile, fresh and energetic writing style, with exceptional attention to detail
Have the ability to write – and think – quickly under pressure
Have an adaptable style to produce everything from live blogs and listicles to long reads and features
Have knowledge of SEO and its importance to digital journalism
Have collaborative skills to pool ideas with the wider digital reporting team and take on board suggestions

A driving licence is preferred, as is access to a car.

If this sounds like the role for you, apply by Friday, March 6.

We will be interviewing candidates as and when applications come in, so please do not delay in applying.

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.