Junior Audience Editor in City of London

The Independent is an online news publisher that was established in 1986 as a national newspaper independent of party-political affiliations or proprietorial influence. In 2016, The Independent became a fully digital publisher, moving away from print in pursuit of sustainability and to safeguard its values and journalism for the future.

The Independent has always thrived through innovation and change. It was the first British newspaper to add a Saturday magazine; the first to give photography the same prestige as news copy; the first to challenge the Westminster lobby system of closed briefings; the first broadsheet to move to the more compact ‘tabloid’ format; the first to launch a concise quality compact paper; and the first – and only – major newspaper to pull off a successful transformation to fully digital publishing.

Through The Independent, Independent TV, eCommerce, indy100, subscriptions and other ‘reader revenues’, The Independent plans to continue the work of many decades, bringing much-needed independent journalism to over 100 million unique global visitors a month, and make its voice ever louder and more insistent the world over. We have an international editorial team with our main offices in London and New York.

In 2024, The Independent’s portfolio of brands increased through a new licensing partnership with BuzzFeed Inc. to operate the BuzzFeed brands in the UK - BuzzFeed UK, Tasty, Seasoned and HuffPost UK. The additional brands echo the existing business ethos and allow for increased audiences and a further strategic diversification of revenue streams.

The Independent is seeking an enthusiastic and analytical Junior Audience Editor to join the UK audience team working within the eCommerce section to support the growth of IndyBest. This role will focus on building sustainable audiences across search and social platforms, including Reddit and YouTube. You will work closely with the audience team, shopping editors and writers to spot emerging trends, optimise content, nurture evergreen articles and confidently guide on audience best practice. You will also create strong shopping stories for Google Discover and other platforms where required.

You’ll be an organised, informed decision maker with a strong interest in digital journalism and online shopping content. You’ll be excited by the challenge of seeing content thrive within a fast-paced newsroom environment.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

As a growing and global brand, we must have a workforce that’s more representative of our readers, viewers, clients and partners, and a workplace that creates a sense of belonging for everyone. We are committed to hiring and developing a diverse workforce regardless of background, and we support our people to thrive in their careers here. The Independent is an equal opportunities employer. If you require any reasonable adjustments to complete your application, please do not hesitate to advise us accordingly.

Key responsibilities:

• Support the audience team in the daily optimisation of articles for search and off-platform audiences
• Improve and maintain evergreen performance through strategic planning
• Conduct keyword and topic research and identify content gaps
• Identify emerging trends across platforms and feed insights back to the editorial team
• Strong editorial eye to craft clickable headlines
• Create excellent and engaging SEO-driven shopping stories when required
• Provide support during key commercial moments, including Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day
• Assist in audience performance reporting, providing easily digestible information and actionable insights for editors and stakeholders
• Monitor the performance of live articles and adjust approaches for maximum reach
• Stay up to date with platform changes, including AI search, algorithm updates and best practices across search, social and more

Key skills & requirements:

• An understanding of SEO fundamentals and optimisation
• Demonstrable understanding of Google Discover and Google’s Top Stories function
• Experience of using analytics tools such as Semrush, GA4 and Chartbeat
• Experience working within an editorial setting is preferred
• Knowledge and understanding of the shopping and product review content that performs for search, social and video platforms
• An interest in building community and driving traffic beyond search, for example, YouTube, Reddit and community-driven platforms
• Ability to liaise between teams to work with a joined-up approach

Our Values: you will deliver across all our values

• Inclusive: We champion diversity in our teams and in our reporting. Working as a team, we put transparency and effective communication at the heart of everything we do.
• Innovative: From the very beginning, The Independent has been breaking the mould. We take risks and are always looking to try new ideas in pursuit of excellence.
• Independent: Nobody tells us what to think; we make up our own minds and aren’t afraid to do things differently. Like our readers, we value honesty and integrity above outside influences.