Senior Journalist – BBC (London)
Band: D
Contract type: 1 x Continuing
Location: Office base is Quay House, MediaCity, Salford (This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office with home working)
Are you passionate about sport & creating innovate / stand out digital content? Do you have a deep knowledge and a flare for social media? BBC Radio 5 Live Sport is looking for a senior digital journalist to join our team; someone who has evidence of delivering high-quality digital content, as well as having experience in content planning for live programming, as well as major sporting events.
The 5 live Sport Digital team, curates and creates digital and multiplatform content for the UK’s foremost sports radio network. The team builds, maintains and syndicates content across all platforms including online and mobile, and works with production colleagues to keep all digital spaces up-to-date and engaging for our audiences.
The candidate will provide editorial leadership and supervision to the team and will develop and maintain the operational aspects of its output. They will be task managing other 5 Live Sport digital producers on the team, as well as managing their own short term and long term projects alongside the 5 Live Digital team.
Working alongside the 5 Live Sport Assistant Editor for Digital and the 5 Live Digital Editor you will have a critical role in driving forward and developing 5 Live Sports’ digital growth in content, brand awareness and audience engagement – whilst also working collaboratively with the 5 Live digital team on content plans for major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA’s Euros, 6 Nations, Ryder Cup, The Ashes and Wimbledon, to name just a few.
We want BBC Sport’s output to reflect and understand the audiences we serve – for example, the different geographical regions of the UK and the experience of people from underrepresented groups (eg people from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, people with lived experience of disability, individuals within the LGBTQ+ community and those from lower socio economic groups). We are therefore actively seeking individuals with skills or experience that can help contribute towards ensuring we maximise the diversity of our coverage and content.
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 competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more
Senior Journalists provide editorial leadership and supervision to the team and will develop and maintain the operational aspects of 5 Live Sport’s output. Within in this role you will have accountability for:
• Day to day management of content producers, their workloads and output
• Curating and commissioning content to support 5 Live Sport’s on air editorial.
• Working collaboratively with the 5 Live Digital team on the digital impact strategy for high priority projects from both linear and on demand output – which includes preparing and setting a digital vision for big events that tie in with key content moments on 5 Live Sport, such as major upcoming commentaries, podcasts and off-diary planned events.
• Developing social media strategies that suit each platform, in a constantly evolving digital landscape
• Working with internal stakeholders to make sure that content is being showcased across the BBC, and that work is not duplicated across departments
• Curating and commissioning across social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
• Developing 5 Live Sport’s digital strategy to maximize relationship with BBC Sounds & BBC Sport.
• Alongside the 5 Live digital team, commissioning and curating 5 Live Sport content for BBC Sounds & BBC Sport.
• Working on development ideas, pilots, delivery and compliance of podcasts for BBC Sounds.
• Working with production teams to ensure they are delivering content to the 5 Live Sport and Sounds digital strategies.
The post-holder will be required to work weekends and evenings due to the 24/7 nature of 5 live Sport.
• Demonstrate ability to manage and develop members of a team.
• Experience of working with News or Sport content.
• Experience of using social media to increase reach and engagement with audiences.
• Understanding and knowledge of the wider digital industry and ability to keep up with current trends and working practices.
• Significant experience of working in multiplatform production.
• Demonstrable project management experience relating to managing both projects and teams.
• Experience of prioritising and delegating to maintain effective performance.
• An understanding of BBC Radio 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, and how it sits within BBC Sport.
• The ability to realise and generate creative and innovative ideas in the context of the BBC’s multi platform offering.
• Sound editorial judgement and the ability to evaluate multiplatform content and radio output effectively.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills to be able to establish rapport with people at all levels and persuade others to your own viewpoint.
• The ability to adapt effectively to a variety of situations and the resilience and stamina to sustain effective performance under pressure.
• Excellent digital copywriting skills.
• Excellent photographic and image manipulation (Photoshop) skills.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in digital video production and editing skills.
This is not an entry level role, we’re looking for candidates with experience within the area, please review the criteria for the role before applying. The right candidate will be expected to do a mix of home and office working, based in MediaCity UK, Salford – and you may be asked to work in different areas of BBC Sport.
