Senior Journalist – BBC (Jersey)

Job Reference: 15857
Band: D
Salary:£37,845-£59,050  depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights. We also pay additional annual Channel Islands Weighting of £5,164 if you work full-time, or the pro-rata equivalent if you work part-time.
Contract Type: Permanent – continuing ( 35hrs per week )
Location: St Helier, Jersey or St Sampsons, Guernsey

Freelancers are eligible to apply for an internal role if they are on a Worker Contract and they have worked continuously for 6 months. If they have worked for less than 6 months continuously or have a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements, they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply for an internal role prior to submitting an application.

Role Introduction

BBC Channel Islands is looking for a Senior Journalist to help organise our news coverage across the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm. We produce coverage for Online, Socials, Audio, and TV throughout the week.

The Islands are British Crown Dependencies, with their own governments and legal systems. There’s a lot of news, from housing pressures to bad weather and the struggle for nurses and teachers. The islands have a really different news agenda to the UK.

Living here offers outstanding opportunities for everything from surfing to cycling and music. There’s a vibrant local arts scene, great places to socialise and stunning coastline. You’re never more than 20 minutes from a beach.

If you are applying to work in Jersey, the successful candidate must be entitled to live and work in Jersey and there are different requirements to living in the UK. More details here: https://www.gov.je/LifeEvents/MovingToJersey/LivingInJersey/pages/work.aspx

If you are applying to work in Guernsey, the successful candidate will need to be entitled to live in Guernsey or have a valid work permit, which the BBC assists with. More details here:

https://www.gov.gg/article/120140/Getting-a-job

Main Responsibilities

• Working with our Assistant Editor and the Local Story Teams in Jersey and Guernsey, you’ll be working on finding stories and planning our news coverage. This is a cross-platform role and involves identifying and setting up stories which all run across Online, Audio and TV.
• You’ll need a good sense of what makes a story and how you want to tell it for the different platforms. Developing a good working relationship with teams across Jersey and Guernsey and Plymouth will also be important.
• You’ll be finding and setting up stories yourself and also working with reporters who generate their own ideas.
• You will be expected to cover for the Assistant Editor (attracts acting-up pay) and Senior Journalist Team Manager (news editor) meaning the role offers excellent career progression and responsibility.

• You must have really strong editorial judgement and be able to take sensitive decisions quickly and decisively. You should have and a good command of the BBC’s policies in all relevant areas. You need an excellent working knowledge of media law.
• You will already have a good base of experience in journalism. You will be able to make decisions with authority and under pressure and will have strong organisation, negotiation, and team-working skills. This job involves adapting quickly to stories when they land or change. You need to be able to manage staff deployments effectively.
• Depending on your skill set, there may be the opportunity to carry out some roles in audio, such as production or presentation. Audio skills would be an advantage.

For more details about the role, please contact Senior News Editor Richard Spalding (richard.spalding@bbc.co.uk).

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.