Jobs and Opps at The Bookseller, TechRadar, Cogora, BBC Scotland, and Many, Many More 🕸️
Everything you should apply for this week and beyond.
I’ve written a lot of things about my life during the past ten years. In this newsletter alone, I’ve shared details of my journey across the country on two wheels, days when my brain has felt full to bursting, and (perhaps most importantly) the things my wonderful ex-stray cat has taught me about life. To me, this newsletter often feels like a safe space. I know my own boundaries, I’ve got the time I need to decide what I’ll share — and there’s no one pushing back, arguing for more of me.
This hasn’t always been the case. I think back to opinion articles I churned out — for free — at a national news outlet and crumple inside. I was desperate to impress, to find any kind of foothold in the industry. Of course, I’d give them my opinions, no matter how little thought I’d really given the process or to interrogating the opinions themselves. I remember the time I wrote about hating my first job so much I quit and wince. Did I hate my job? Yes. Do I stand by the overall message? Yes. Do I wish someone had stopped to ask me if I really wanted to burn this bridge or if we should work on the nuance within the piece? Even more so yes.
I’m lucky. None of these pieces were bad per se. And there’s an important space for personal writing in journalism. But I look around me and see dozens of pieces a day that make me pause — did these writers get the support they needed from editors? Did they get to make an informed choice about what they were writing? Or, like me, did they feel that selling their stories was their only route to a sustainable career?
We’ve written about freelance journalism and its toxic relationship with trauma before at Journo Resources, but we’re digging further this evening, with a session with Rebekah Pierre, looking at how to share your lived experiences without selling your soul — watch back tickets are still available. We’ll be talking about how to protect yourself, how editors should protect their writers, and how to take control of our own story. We’d love to see you there — and we’d also love to know what would be most useful for you when we make follow-up resources.
🚨[EVENT] Finding Your Voice In Arts Journalism
Join the award-winning Rachael Healy next Monday for our session on how to find your voice in arts journalism. We’ll delve into the breadth of arts journalism across theatre, comedy, art, and more, with advice on how to bring depth to your writing, find unique angles, and explore whether to develop a niche. Plus, we’ll look at making contact with editors and finding publications that pay fairly.
🚨 It’s your last chance to apply for the ITV Academy News Traineeship, which closes on Sunday. It’s an A* scheme that pays £27–29,000pa and will embed you in one of ITV’s newsrooms across the country. I’m also super proud of the guide we’ve written to applications here, with tips from previously successful applicants.
Stak, the podcast people, have a vacancy for an assistant producer to work on their flagship show Football Ramble their European football podcast On the Continent and their women’s football show Upfront. It pays £19–24,000pa.
[AD] This looks like a great one — Pulse, which goes out to an audience of GPs is hiring a features assistant. It pays £27–30,000pa.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is offering a six-month marketing and development internship. You’ll be paid the London Living Wage and will get to work across social media, emails, and more.
This is a content assistant job in Birmingham at Connect. It doesn’t look like the most glamorous, but does pay £23,000pa and will give you the chance to hone skills related to website content and user journeys.
A similar role here as a digital marketing assistant — this one is for a company that makes incontinence products and seems good vibes. You’ll be paid up to £25,000pa and will work across SEO, socials, and emails.
YachtBuyer has an opening for a junior editorial assistant — who doesn’t want to just research and write articles about hella big boats for a living?! It pays £21–25,000pa..
🚨 An end-of-the-week deadline for this journalism coordinator role at BBC Radio Jersey. It’s an entry-level role where you’ll help put together the programme and it pays £24,039–28,045pa plus an annual £5,164 cost of living allowance.
Intermission Film is hiring a music assistant — this is mainly an admin role, to flag, but could be a good first in. It pays £24–26,000pa. H/T MediaBeans.
Thames & Hudson has a six-month placement live for an editorial intern. It pays the London Living Wage.
Green Alliance is hiring a communications officer to help craft, edit, and produce impactful content that helps us move towards a greener future. You’ll be paid £34,663–38,017pa.
🚨 The Bookseller has a rare part-time opp here — it’s a news reporter gig, working just two days a week, on Thursdays and Fridays. It pays £24–26,000pa FTE.
This is a football YouTube company, covering the challenges faced by professional footballers and football clubs. They are looking for a film and video editor to work on their UK content and are paying £29–32,000pa.
[AD] Nursing In Practice is on the lookout for a news and features writer to dive into the issues affecting nurses across the country. It pays £26,000pa.
Also, a reminder that Finextra is looking for a fintech reporter to write features and news ideas. It pays £25–30,000pa and is a fascinating area to dig into.
TechRadar has an opening for a homes editor, who’ll focus on tech that can make home life smarter and easier. It looks like this role can be based in either London or Bath and it pays £29–35,000pa.
BBC Scotland is hiring a senior journalist to work in Glasgow and focus on visual formats. It’s a Band D role, so it pays somewhere in the wildly large range of £36,195–64,688pa.
There’s also a BBC vacancy in Hull or Lincoln. It’s an online journalist gig so you’ll focus on digital news for the region and beyond. £26,975–£36,000pa.
The Rory Peck Trust, which supports freelance journalists working on the frontline around the world, is hiring a new director to head up the organisation. It pays £60–65,000pa and involves worldwide travel.
The Roundhouse, an iconic music and arts venue in London, is looking for a head of communications to help shape its narrative. It pays £55,000pa and it’s also worth flagging here that the org. does loads of great work to help young people.
Newton Media has an advert live for an associate editor at Intelligent Insurer. You’ll be paid £40–50,000pa to guide their editorial across all areas.
Hotel Café Royal is hiring a director of marketing. I’m mainly including this because a) it pays up to £80,000pa, b) their client list is wild, and c) I assume you’d also get to try some of their amazing food? Please bring me for dinner if so.
Alliance, a magazine that looks at philanthropy and social investment worldwide, has an opening for an editor. It pays £42,000pa and you’ll also only need to be in the office for two days a week.
The Independent is hiring a freelance production journalist to work across eCommerce and it doesn’t look like you need to be in the office all the time.
Independent cultural journalism platform The Skinny is launching a new food magazine called gnaw, and is looking for pitches which take an expected look at food in Scotland. Send pitches of no more than 100 words by the 29th of February.
It looks like Valentina Di Liscia at Hyperallergic is open to receiving news pitches on a freelance basis, but not profiles or reviews. You can expect a base rate of US$250 for shorter pieces and US$500 for longer pieces and reported stories.
Wanderlust’s Rhodri Andrews is looking for writers specialising in Louisiana (bonus points if you know its music scene) and writers specialising in the Isle of Man (for a different piece, naturally). No rates are listed, but the NUJ has one reported from 2020 of £176 for 800 words.
Eliza Goodpasture is now a commissioning editor at art education charity Art UK, and is looking for stories about drawings. There’s a useful pitch guide here. Writers will be paid £250 per story.
Elizabeth Sulis Kim at Cunning Folk, an independent magazine about all things magic and folklore, is looking for pitches for its next issue themed ‘Sound and Vision’ — particularly for essays, interviews, and poetry. Send your ideas before the 20th of March. Pays £100 per article or short story.
Julia Naftulin at Business Insider is searching for a few folks for some culture stories. Rates start at US$700 but make sure to check through as she’s looking for coverage of some very specific events.
This is a freelance copywriter role that pays £15.40ph and says it’s an ongoing contract until 2026, which feels like some stability in this messy landscape.
🏡 A “global news platform” is on the lookout for a photo editor to research, select, and edit images for inclusion on their website. It pays £22–25ph across Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays.
🚨 Last call for the freelance reporter at FE Week. You’ll work with the team for somewhere between three and five days a week. Pays £150 a day.
🚨 It’s also the last call for the newsletter writer and local reporter job at The Wimble, which is a new local email newsletter covering Wimbledon. It pays £400 per week — that’s a rate of £20ph.
🏡 And, finally, a reminder that Brendan Miller is searching for journalists who are interested in video to help research and write his videos. It pays £170 per day.
🚨 🎪 A reminder that our event on writing about lived experience without selling your soul is happening right now, but watch-back tickets are still available — it’s going to be a super great session.
🚨 🎪 It’s also your last chance to get tickets for our arts journalism event with Rachael Healy. As an award-winning writer and journalist, she’ll talk through how to find unique angles and carve out a space for your work.
🎪 There’s also a tonne of other stuff coming up later, too. Layla Marino talks about how to break into music journalism, Hannah Shewan Stevens looks at how to up your interviewing game, Jenny Bär reveals the steps to getting copywriting work, and Meehika Barua explores breaking into lifestyle journalism.
The Refugee Journalism Project has partnered with BAFTA to offer a bursary of up to £2,000 for displaced film, games, or TV professionals. You must have legal refugee or humanitarian protection status and the money can be spent on anything from mentoring and training to equipment.
🎪 🆓 The Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme at UCLan (where I’m studying for my MA currently) is hosting a free forum about news leadership in the digital age. There are some great speakers including Marcela Kunova of Journalism.co.uk, Rihannon Davies of Greater Govanhill, and more.
Pitch magazine has opened up the Young Sports Journalist Competition 2024. They’ve got prompts to base your piece on and you’ll get your piece published, £50 in cash, and the offer of work experience.
There’s not long left for the Freelancing for Journalists Journalism Work Experience and Mentoring Scheme, which pairs emerging journalists with freelance journalists. We’re signed up, so you can work with us!
For our readers in Africa, the BBC has reopened the Komla Dumor Award. It offers a “rising star” three months of work experience at the BBC and the chance to produce an original and nuanced story.
The Stern-Bryan Fellowship is also open for applications once more. They’re offering journalists with some years of experience the chance to spend three months working at The Washington Post during the election year, as well as a further month to travel across the US.
🚨 The deadline for the final age category in the Hugo Young Award is this week. Entries close on Monday for those aged 16–18 who write a short political opinion piece. You’ll win £100 in book vouchers and get your piece published.
🚨 There are just two days left to submit to the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, which offers up to US$12,500 to a journalist whose work uncovers truths about the human condition. The Reporting Award, also from New York University, offers the same amount to cover underreported stories in the public interest. It also closes in a few days.
And, lastly, a reminder of the Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism, which closes at the end of the month. The first prize is £3,000 plus publication of your piece in the paper.
I loved this piece from George Devo with Lukanyo Mnyanda, The Financial Times’s energy correspondent. Lukanyo is just one of those super smart people who’s very considered in everything they say and there’s some great stuff in here about the future of journalism and breaking into the industry.
Our latest collab with our friends at City Journalism has also just dropped — we’re delving into what exactly an MA in International Journalism is, and how it could help you on your journey to becoming a foreign correspondent.
And, finally, I actually got to write a thing, which feels very rare these days! Our guide to the ITV Academy’s News Traineeship is now live and I’m really proud of just how comprehensive it is.