Jobs & Opps at The British Museum, Law Business Review, The BBC and more...
Here are our plans to support you throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s been two weeks since I’ve been working from home entirely, and I couldn’t really tell you much about it. It’s all been a blur. I’ve always spent most of my time working by myself but that hasn’t stopped my brain from clouding over for endless amounts of time, my eyes from aching every time I turn the laptop on, or the unsettling sense of dread and panic thats’s just about kept in check.
It was only this weekend, a whole fortnight after this first hit, that I was able to take stock. It might seem like a silly, but for me, finding the time to assess what’s working is still just as important as ever. Looking back at my week while looking forward to the next showed me the incremental improvements I’d made, albeit minor, and allowed me to think about what I could change and control in the weeks ahead.
We’ve heard a lot already about how this is a marathon, not a sprint. But for me that’s less about hunkering down, and more about being kind to yourself. Give yourself the space you need when you need it, be as flexible with your routine as possible, and don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go to plan. None of us have done this before, and there’s no textbook way to deal with it.
This said, we want to help you as much as we can, I’m pleased to finally be able to share our full range of support with you. You can read the full release here, but in short:
We’re expanding our one-to-one advice capacity, so we can give more advice to more people. Send us your CVs or pitches and we can take a look.
Along with our partners, we’re running a range of different workshops and drop-ins on everything from pitching to working remotely.
We’re upping our in-depth advice content, with at least two pieces put up every week and daily Instagram posts.
There’ll be an increased focus on finding more opportunities. We’ll try to make these newsletters longer and update our opportunities more often.
You can read more here, as well as the sterling efforts of our partners too. Equally, if there’s something we’re not offering that you’d like to see, do let us know and we’ll do our best to make it happen.
Can You Help Us Keep Publishing Through COVID19?
Currently we run on less than £18,000 a year – and it’s taking a hit thanks to the coronavirus. Even £3.50 makes a massive difference to what we can do.
🚨This amazing gig with All Hail Kale is closing today. A wellness site which is a spin off from the popular BBC podcast, they’re now looking for a social media producer who will be paid £24,000pa.
🚨Also just three days left on this researcher job with The Media Eye. As an events team researcher you’ll be paid £22-25,000pa and will be sourcing and updating the diary on celebrity events.
Law Business Research is looking for a junior production editor to work across all of their titles (they have a fair few) looking at layout, design, and copyediting. It’s about £22,000pa.
🚨Print and Sign Monthly’s News Reporter gig is also up today, so get on it if you fancy it. It’s £18,000pa, which rises to £20,000pa after six months.
The Edinburgh TV Festival is set to take place in August still, and they’re looking for a marketing and design assistant to help with design work, social media campaigns and research. It pays £22,000pa.
A renewed call out from Archant for a trainee reporter in Stevenage this week. It pays £17,160pa and combines news and multimedia.
Two other roles from Law Business Research today – one for Global Banking Review and one more widely. They’re a big company, so you’ve probably seen this info before, but it pays £23,000pa.
The Institute of Engineering and Technology is looking for an editorial and production assistant until December. It’s £19,000pa and you’ll be given full training.
The British Museum is looking for a junior website content editor to who’ll be producing and editing content for the website. It pays £23,447pa.
A PR / Comms internship gig here, which pays £21,000pa with Amgen. They’re a bio tech company, but will accept people from a media background – you’ll be looking at social media, media updates, and press releases.
This job through a recruiter for an editorial assistant pays £11ph (so above London Living Wage) and will see you working at a medical publishing house.
The Woodland Trust are looking for not one, but two digital content editors who’ll be making stuff for their digital output, surprisingly. It pays £20-25,000pa.
A gig from a recruiter here – they’re looking for an executive editor to cover commodities. You’ll be managing the flow of news and analysis, training reporters and developing their online offering. Pays £60-70,000pa.
🚨Final few days left for this job with #ThisMuchIKnow. They’re paying £27-30,000pa for a journalist with two years experience to drive their Midlands-based news agenda within the national output.
Insurance Investment Exchange are looking for a digital content editor / journalist to work part-time on building their online content. It’s two days a week, at up to £26,000 FTE. Remote-working is also a long-term possibility.
🚨C40 Cities are looking for a social media officer to help them on their mission to tackle the climate crisis. It pays £34,716pa and the deadline is Friday. H/T to our friends at mediabeans for spotting this one.
🚨Last chance for this journalist role at BBC Look East as it closes tomorrow. It’s in Band C, which means it pays £25,000-49,000pa.
🚨Also from the BBC at Band C is this role in the News Labs team, where you’ll be working on prototypes to make the broadcaster’s content even more exciting and innovative. Closes on Sunday.
A data journalism role with Law Business Research next up. You’ll be working across two of their titles with a lean on data analysis. Pays £27-30,000pa.
🚨Also closing soon is this job from GardenersWorld.com. It’s £30-35,000pa for their deputy editor role who’ll plan and deliver digital content.
Only a minimum of 12 months experience needed for this gig with Unbound, so a good step-up role. It pays £25,000 and sounds a bit different and fulfilling - you’ll be running campaigns to help people’s books become a reality.
The British Museum is looking for a website content editor to take the lead on producing and managing content for their new website. Pays £29,589pa.
MENG is looking for an experienced writer, who they’ll pay £40-60,000pa, to help the company’s founder write a memoir. We’ve seen this up a few times before, so they’ve presumably not found who they wanted.
Weird flex here, but bear with us. This gig pays £30,000pa for people who can write polished business plans for clients to help them secure investment. Sounds bizarre, but could see you through a tough patch.
An editorial manager job here within a financial services firm. These kind of things always pay pretty well and this one is no exception - it’s £50-60,000pa.
Finally, Paysafe Group are looking for a senior creative copywriter to join their branding and marketing team. It pays £40-50,000pa.
Global Investigative News Journalism is always on the lookout for pitches on muck racking, new models of journalism, and innovation.
Model View Culture are resuming printing and are looking for your stories about tech, social justice, and diversity. $150 a piece.
Cosmo in the US are looking for your weirdest, most salacious and WTF stories about dating in the age of coronavirus. If it’s good enough they might take a pitch from across the pond.
The Fuller Project are looking for stories on the intersection of women’s issues and the coronavirus. They promise they pay well.
We mentioned this up in the next step jobs, but Insurance Investment Exchange say they’re open to freelancers who are looking for long term gigs too. It’s two days a week on online content, remote working, and up to £26,000 FTE.
Another to flag from the section above - MENG is looking for an experienced writer to help with a memoir. It pays £40-60,000pa and they’re happy for it to be part-time.
The Solutions Journalism team are lovely (I’ve worked with them) and are also accepting pitches right now.
Not the highest of rates from Uppercut, but if you’re just starting out they could be worth pitching too. They’re looking for insights and angles on games that hasn’t been covered elsewhere.
John Merrick is looking for pitches for the Verso blog, but don’t panic if he takes a while to get back to you. H/T to Meryl Williams, who is well worth a follow.
This gig pays £102 a day with a broadcaster in West London. You’ll be making sure content is ready for transmission and liaising within multiple teams.
Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro X are offering 90 day free trials if you sign-up now, if you fancy using your newfound free time to edit that documentary you were waiting on, or can’t get the office software at home, now’s the time.
Freelance community Underpinned are offering free membership to their virtual office until September. It includes a range of tools to help you find and manage work, as well as a mental health advice line.
🚨 The European Journalism Centre has extended the deadline for their development grants for newsrooms. Eight grants of up to €120,000 are available for organisations reporting on global development topics.
The Google News Initiative Fellowships have also been extended to April 14, to give you more time to apply. You get to spend eight weeks, fully funded in gaining real newsroom experience.
🚨Applications for the Mary Mulvihill Award close today. A student in higher education in Ireland will win €2,000 for the best science story.
🚨 The deadline for Private Eye’s Paul Foot Award is tomorrow. You can win £5,000 for a piece of investigative and/or campaigning journalism.
If you were scrambling to get your entries in for the We Art Water Film Festival, take a few deep breaths. The deadline has been extended to May 6 to win up to $3,000 for documentaries focused on water problems.
The BAFTA Scholarship Programme is now open, offering £5-12,000 towards course fees for those looking to persue a career in film, TV or games.
🚨 One World Media’s Fellowship, for people reporting on the global south, closes on April 2. It’s a £1,000 grant.
🚨Applications close tomorrow for a new fund offering organisations and individuals up to $50,000 to fight coronavirus misinformation. The cash comes from the International Fact Checking Network and Facebook.
Another reminder of this one from the Pulitzer Center, who are offering grants for collaborative coronavirus reporting, usually between $5-10,000. It’s first come first serve, so apply quickly.
The Journalist’ Charity have launched a new competition to raise funds for journalists affected by coronavirus. Submit a 300 word portrait of a character who you think would have caught Charles Dickens’ attention and you could snag a signed cartoon of yourself. It’s free to enter but donations welcome.
🚨 The deadline is tomorrow for the latest round of the Journalism Diversity Fund, which will cover the costs of an NCTJ-accredited course for those from non-traditional backgrounds.
This is a good round-up of the support available for journalists from Women in Journalism’s Donna Ferguson.
The International Women’s Media Fund is offering grants of up to $2,000 for reporters impacted by COVID-19. Grants are awarded on a case by case basis.
🚨We’re running an online workshop with Saturday in conjunction with the Student Publication Association on how to cover your campus remotely. More details on how to join the call here.
🚨 Finally, Substack, the service we use to write this newsletter are offering grants between $500 and $5,000 to independent writers hit by COVID-19. Applications close next Tuesday.
We’ll have lots more material for you to read during the coming weeks and months. This page sums up everything we’re offering, as well as the support from our partners, and we’ll be keeping it regularly updated. In short, keep it bookmarked.
The first of this week’s coronavirus is for all the students out there who’ve had their terms cut short. Here’s a pretty comprehensive run to down to what you can do while you’re in lockdown, from free courses and software to stories to get cracking on.