Reporter – North Essex
Newsquest North Essex is looking for an ambitious and community‑focused reporter to join our established newsroom, covering one of the most diverse and rewarding local news patches in the country.
This role offers the chance to work across a large and historic newspaper portfolio, including the Colchester Gazette and a wide range of weekly titles such as the Clacton & Frinton Gazette, serving communities right across north and mid Essex.
Essex is an exciting place to be a local journalist. From busy urban centres and coastal towns to rural villages, the area is rich in character, stories and strong local identity. With vibrant communities and an evolving political landscape, this is a patch that rewards journalists who care deeply about people, listen to readers and take pride in producing journalism that genuinely matters.
Key Responsibilities
You will work across multiple Essex titles as part of a collaborative newsroom, while developing deep knowledge of your patches and clear accountability for the impact of your work.
You must be curious and excited by the capabilities of AI in supporting community-led journalism and content creation.
- Taking ownership of defined patches and communities, becoming a trusted and visible local journalist
- Producing community‑led journalism, from council decisions and policing to public services, campaigns and neighbourhood stories
- Generating original ideas that reflect what local people are talking about – and what they care about most
- Building strong, lasting relationships with readers, councillors, community groups, organisations and key contacts
- Using social media both to listen to communities and to distribute your journalism effectively
- Producing a wide range of content, including news, interviews, explainers, features and community campaigns
- Taking responsibility for your digital performance, using data and audience insight to shape story choice, headlines and formats
- Confidently using AI tools to support reporting and production, in line with newsroom expectations
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
We are seeking a patch‑led, digitally confident reporter who is passionate about community journalism and understands the responsibility – and opportunity – that comes with serving a large local audience online and in print.
Success in this role comes from combining strong community reporting with an understanding of how stories perform digitally – using insight, analytics and smart presentation to ensure quality journalism reaches as many readers as possible.
- A genuine commitment to high‑quality, community‑first journalism
- Strong news sense and the ability to identify stories with clear local relevance and digital appeal
- Comfortable being accountable for individual audience performance, with a desire to learn and improve
- An excellent relationship‑builder with strong communication skills
- A versatile, engaging writing style with exceptional attention to detail
- A good understanding of what digital readers expect from local news
- Organised, self‑motivated and effective at managing time and workload
- Sound knowledge of media law and responsible reporting standards
- Adaptable enough to produce everything from quick‑turnaround stories to longer‑form features
- A collaborative mindset, contributing ideas and supporting wider newsroom objectives
About you
Ideally, applicants will be fully NCTJ‑qualified, with gold‑standard NCTJ and 100wpm shorthand.
A driving licence and access to a car are preferred due to the geography of the patch. The role operates on a rota basis, including some early, late and weekend shifts. This role is based in our office in Colchester, with free parking and on-patch shifts.
If you want to build a career in impactful, community‑driven local journalism while developing your digital and AI skills within a supportive newsroom, we’d love to hear from you.
Please apply by May 4. Interviews will be held as applications are received, so early applications are encouraged.
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.
