Journalist (Newcastle Local Story Team) in Newcastle upon Tyne

CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Part Time (28 hours per week)

DEPARTMENT: Radio Newcastle

LOCATION: Newcastle-Upon‑Tyne, office-based

PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £27,600 - £33,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

We’re looking for an experienced, versatile journalist to join our team. You’ll need to be hands-on and have a passion for storytelling, with experience in breaking news, a great news reading voice, and production skills. Digital journalism skills are also considered desirable. You’ll need to be a motivated, multi-skilled journalist to help shape our content, focusing on bringing to life the stories that matter to our audience. We want a driven and passionate person who is keen to reach new audiences through our various platforms. You’ll ideally know what audiences expect from different platforms and how to turn around a story to meet a tight deadline. The role requires someone who will be keen to do more than just look for press releases – we want original and inclusive ideas that help reflect the diverse audience of Newcastle.

Because news bulletins are a key requirement of the job, please send a demo radio news bulletin in the form of an MP3 or WAV file, no longer than 3 minutes to sam.thomson@bbc.co.uk when you apply. If you have difficulties in emailing your demo, please use WeTransfer to send. Any other forms of submission will not be considered.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

Are you a team player looking to join a local news team in the BBC where your skillset will be acknowledged and nurtured? Do you want to move to a new way of working within an ambitious broadcasting station? This is a great opportunity to join an ambitious team here at Radio Newcastle. If you love telling local stories that matter to the people that live here in the North East, we want to hear from you. We need people who match our ambition for the station. The role is demanding and we set high standards. But we also want to have fun. If you’re a journalist with plenty of ideas for creative storytelling then we want to hear from you.

Are you available to work weekends? We are looking for someone to work predominantly as part of our weekend line-up, with an extra weekday shift either immediately before or after the weekend.

Do you have a strong broadcast voice? You will work on a wide range of stories with the audience at the heart of it. You must be as skilled in researching, briefing, and scripting around an interview, as chatting to a presenter and engaging with our listeners. Can you deliver creative treatments on air? If so, we want to hear from you.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

• You will have experience of responding to breaking news with the ability to summarise complex issues calmly and clearly under significant time pressure.
• You may be deployed to report on stories, so live production experience is critical.
• You will come up with original story ideas, guests, and creative treatments and carry out background research.
• Compiling and presenting our hourly news bulletins, with a mixture of weekend and weekday working.
• Our producers work with colleagues across BBC News and other parts of the corporation.
• We expect high-quality writing skills and the highest standards of accuracy, impartiality, and fair dealing in accordance with the BBC's Editorial values.
• Our audience are using us 7 days a week; our weekend breakfast and mid-morning content is a crucial aspect of our output – so expect early starts.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

• Reporting
• Editorial judgement
• Creativity

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge, and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC. At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world’s best-loved content, and the BBC’s mission to inform, educate, and entertain.

Find out more about the BBC Life at BBC. Here you will benefit from:

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme, and discounted dental, health care, and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection, or offer.
• A values-based organisation where the way we do things is important as what we do.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis. Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.

Candidate pack

You belong. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive, and achieve their full potential. We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity. We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion, and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion, and belonging in our strategy below.

Diversity, inclusion & belonging strategy

Disability confident. We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we’d be happy to discuss: reasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk