Jobs and Opps at Faber Academy, SWNS, the BBC, Channel 4, and Many, Many More 📻
Everything you should have on your list to apply for this week.
Jem is off on an incredibly sporty adventure cycling from London to Devon, so once again it is Catharina, your friendly couch potato, who will be with you this week. I spent the Labour Day long weekend making seaweed butter, getting caught in the rain, watching Bungo Stray Dogs, and wondering if BTS’ Jimin would actually turn up for the Met Gala. (Spoiler: he didn’t.)
The gradually warmer weather is putting us all in a delightful mood, but there’s no getting around the fact that recent happenings have put a serious dampener on summer frivolity. We all know that gal-dem had shut down at the end of March, and while a much-deserved Early Day Motions has been tabled to recognise its achievements, it was a sign of worse things to come.
Waves of layoffs at Disney have hit writers across ESPN, ABC News, National Geographic, and other divisions. Vox Media, which publishes Vox, The Verge, New York magazine, and Vulture is laying off seven percent of their staff. The Pulitzer-winning Buzzfeed News has been shuttered. Insider has cut 10 percent of their workforce. Vice Media has ended the Vice News Tonight broadcast and closed Vice World News, decimating their fantastic Asia-Pacific newsroom. BDG Media has been scaling things back since February, shutting down Gawker and laying off Bustle staff, including the whole Bustle UK team — which I myself was part of as an entertainment writer. And mere days ago, Paper Magazine once again broke the internet by laying off its entire editorial staff.
With redundancy plans also in place for Metro and the Daily Mail, media job cuts across the UK and the US are in the thousands. We aren’t even into the second half of 2023 yet! Every media layoff I see on my Twitter timeline feels like another punch in the gut. It’s all I can do to keep from screaming: “Don’t they know it’s already hard enough for writers and journalists in the first place!” Depressed economic climate, who? We’re depressed.
These are unsettling times. Publications seem to be increasingly giving up on incubating early-career staff writers and developing their talents in-house. There is a distinct lack of stability in the air. And yet, it’s so important for us to keep fanning that spark of hope.
Readers deserve to consume well-researched journalism that leads to real-life changes. There is a whole world full of individuals out there with fascinating stories to tell, just waiting to be interviewed. We have so many facets and points of view to consider regarding any piece of headlining news. Incendiary hot takes on social media can only carry conversations so far. We need good journalists to highlight tomorrow’s problems, to celebrate people who are getting things right, to amplify voices that should be heard, and to be at the forefront of driving change to a better world.
Please don’t be disheartened enough to give up on your writing dreams. Polish your craft and hone your voice. Publish on a personal blog. Take up video journalism for a change. Keep pitching as a freelancer. Stay hopeful, and know that Journo Resources will be behind you, armed with advice, guidance, seminars, and a community of journalists who want us all to succeed.
[EVENT] Using Social Media Effectively To Find & Promote Your Stories
Twitter’s decline and the rise of ChatGPT are only some of the bombshells that have changed the social media landscape recently. The award-winning Carla Jenkins works as a social media and platforms journalist for The Times and The Sunday Times Scotland, and will be speaking to us on May 15 about which platforms work best for journalists finding stories or promoting their work.
🚨 Not long left to apply for the reporter gig at Law.com International. They want someone to report on news, trends, and investigations that affect lawyers at top commercial law firms. Pays £20–24,000pa.
Faber & Faber is looking for a Faber Academy online assistant to help provide courses and online resources to writers. This’ll be a perfect starter job for someone dipping their toes into creative writing and publishing. Getting staff access to Faber’s book titles is also a huge plus! Pays £27,700 FTE.
An opportunity has come up for a features writer to join the UK’s biggest independent news content provider, SWNS, in their magazine department. Expect to be involved in the magazine from ideation through to print, so swot up on InDesign. Pays £22–23,000pa.
If you have grant reviewing experience in science and tech, you’d be perfect as Grantify.io’s grant editor. This is their first staff position for the role, is remote-first, and pays £35–40,000 DOE.
The Three Rivers District Council in Southwest Hertfordshire is looking for a communications and engagement officer with a knack for building and maintaining relationships within the local community. The work involves multimedia storytelling with copy, press releases, and video content. Pays £30,151–32,020.
Join the Gallery Climate Coalition as their content coordinator and make a difference by producing environmental sustainability guidelines for the arts sector. This is a part-time role that pays £28,000 FTE, with the possibility of extending the contract.
BBC Digital Audio News is looking for creative journalists to write, produce, and edit audio output. There’ll be some on-air work, so brush up on your speaking voice! This is a Band C role, which pays £25,670–50,313pa.
Elsewhere in the BBC, the BBC Sport team is seeking sub editors (which they call senior journalists). They specify a need for excellent subbing skills and strong editorial judgement. This one is Band D, which pays £36,195–64,688pa.
Have a knack for financial news? Consider being a reporter for Mortgage Strategy and Mortgage Finance Gazette. You will produce market-leading news, analysis, and features across web and print. Pays £26–30,000 DOE.
APM Health Europe wants a healthcare news reporter with good knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry and medical research. You will source, write, and sub-edit global pharmaceutical news for the subscription-based news wire. This is a nine-month contract that pays £35–40,000pa.
Construction News is the leading publication in its sector, and they’re looking for a senior reporter to work across their daily newsletters and monthly print magazine. Interest in construction and the built environment is essential. Pays £28–30,000pa.
As a journalism-adjacent gig, working as a press officer for Possible means you can craft stories around climate solutions and shape public discussion. Expect to write press releases, pitch stories, and work on campaigns. Pays £31,908–34,652pa.
🚨 Only a couple days left until applications close for this offshore wind journalist role at reNEWS. You will need to have covered a specialist beat before. Home office-based, and they’re paying up to £40,000 DOE.
🚨⏰ Last day to become Channel 4’s next entertainment digital producer! The job is based in Leeds and involves looking after social media campaigns. If you have experience in digital marketing and team management, they’re interested and will pay £41–50,000pa.
🇪🇺🚨 Bellingcat needs an editor to help lead major stories and investigations into conflict, corruption, and misinformation. You should be comfortable doing open source research. Pays €47–49,500pa DOE.
🚨 Closing before our next newsletter is this senior data investigations advisor role for Global Witness. They need someone on their Natural Resources Governance team to highlight the lack of attention on critical minerals extraction. If you know at least one programming language, they are paying £52,494pa.
The Early Years Alliance is looking for an experienced editor to fully manage content for their membership magazine, Under 5, across digital and print. The pay starts from £34,033pa, inclusive of London Weighting.
The Disasters Emergency Committee need a media and creative content lead to work three to five days per week. You will ensure that reporting on the Turkey–Syria Earthquake Appeal is accurate, informative, respectfully sensitive, and impactful. Pays £42,000 FTE.
Here’s a chance for three emerging professional writers to join a collaborative writers’ room. The Seagull Theatre is producing a new children’s sci-fi web series, and want young writers between the ages of 18 and 25 to get involved. Pays £500 per day.
whynow are looking for features, interviews, and reviews in music, art, film, and TV. Have a look at their pitching guidelines before sending in your ideas.
The Media for Environment, Science, Health, and Agriculture are calling for pitches on the intersection between biodiversity and tourism. They’ve tweeted a flyer with in-depth details.
Kiera Fields at Insider is taking pitches on all things business- or work-related. Also, if you’ve been affected by the recent media layoffs, get in touch to be added to her call-out list!
Khadijah Diskin is commissioning articles on “anti-racism, organising and liberation”, particularly from writers and activists who work with charities. Get in touch via Twitter DM.
Katie Corvino wants hilarious Mother’s Day ideas for Betches. They want to execute by May 14, so reach out ASAP.
Good news for Los Angeles-based friends: Knock LA has increased their rates, now ranging from $200–500. They also pay $50 per hour for live tweeting.
🎪 Every other writer seems to be launching their own newsletter now, so if this is something you’re also interested in, check out our next online event on starting and building your newsletter.
🎪 The social media landscape is going through some massive changes. We get social media and platforms journalist Carla Jenkins to tell us how we can use social media to find and promote stories.
Raconteur is running the New Voices Programme, a 10-week workshop to train business journalists. The course is free for successful applicants, and you’ll get to publish an article through their partnership with The Times. Applications close on May 8, so act fast.
The new East London Scholarship scheme will cover tuition fees and a £15,000 living allowance for UK students to take on a master’s degree at the new UCL East campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park or UCL School of Management in Canary Wharf. The MA Audio Storytelling for Podcast and Radio course is eligible for this scheme, and would be interesting to audio journalists.
Nominate your favourite newsletter (hint hint!🙋🏻♀️) at the newly launched Publisher Newsletter Awards. There are plenty of categories to choose from, so here’s a great chance to show your Substack writers how much you appreciate them.
Since highly publicised cases like Wagatha Christie and Amber Heard v Johnny Depp, interest in the courtroom is at an all-time high. Read our Day in the Life article with law reporter Jess Glass on what it’s like reporting from the high court.
Lydia Wilkins examines how neurodiversity still needs to be accepted more in newsrooms, and advises neurodiverse journalists on knowing their rights.
I spoke to travel news editor James Chapple on how working on the “back-end” of travel journalism can be just as rewarding, and why writers should dabble in both B2C and B2B content.
Every Month, We Need to Raise £6,000 Just To Keep Going
We’ll be honest, sometimes it feels like an endless and thankless task. While £6,000 might seem like a huge amount of money to spend, when you stretch it across our staff team of five, things quickly start to run out. At Journo Resources, we’re entirely independent — we sadly don’t know any rich people. If you can, a small donation of just £4 a month makes a huge difference to what we’re able to do — and allows us to keep creating all of our free resources.