Reporter – St Helens and Leigh

The St Helens Star and Leigh Journal are looking for a top-class reporter who is passionate about digital storytelling, hard-working, full of ideas and has the drive to come up with innovative ways of presenting stories across various platforms.

We need an ambitious, digitally skilled, versatile journalist to cover breaking news and write stories and features from these incredibly lively patches, which both have strong identities.

The right candidates will also be able to contribute to other titles in the region, including the Wirral Globe and Warrington Guardian.

Key Responsibilities

A major part of the job will involve spending time out in the local communities to understand what matters to our audiences and building relationships.

We also want someone adept at using social media, both to help gather the news and to share it.

We want to tell the stories our audiences care about – from covering crime, courts and local politics to powerful human interest pieces and championing the best of our local communities.

The job is a hybrid role; there will be a combination of home working, a significant amount of reporting from out on patch in Leigh and St Helens, and time spent in our regional newsroom in Warrington.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Ideally, you will be a fully qualified reporter with gold-standard NCTJ with 100wpm.

You will also be:

Brimming with ideas on how to tackle the remit and get the most out of them digitally
Fully understand what digital readers want from local news coverage
Excellent at developing relationships with key contacts to improve coverage
Driven to succeed using the digital analytics tools at your disposal
A self-starter, brilliant with time management
Passionate about social media
Have an excellent knowledge of relevant media law
Have a versatile, fresh, and energetic writing style with exceptional attention to detail
The ability to write – and think – quickly under pressure
An adaptable style to produce everything from live blogs and listicles to long reads and features
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 required, as is access to a car. We work on a rota basis with some early and late shifts as well as some weekend work.

If this sounds like the role for you, apply by Tuesday, March 17th

We will be interviewing candidates as and when applications come in, so don’t 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.