Trainee Reporter – The Bury Times

The Bury Times is looking for a top-class reporter who is passionate about digital storytelling, hard-working, full of ideas and innovative when it comes to presenting stories across various platforms.

We seek an ambitious, digitally skilled, versatile journalist to cover breaking news and write stories from this incredibly lively patch.

The right candidates will also be able to report for other titles in the region, including The Bolton News.

Key Responsibilities

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

You’ll also be open-minded and willing to utilise AI as part of the role. 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.

The job will primarily be based at our friendly regional newsroom in Bolton – but you will be required to get out on patch, and we are flexible about home working.

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

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Brimming with ideas on how to tackle the remit and get the most out of it 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 preferred, 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 Friday, April 24.

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.