Reporter - North Somerset

Newsquest South West is looking for a new reporter to join our team working across our titles in Somerset and Devon.

This role is suited to a full-time trainee who has completed their NCTJ diploma or a senior reporter working four days a week. The ideal candidate would be ready to make an immediate impact reporting on an area with big ambitions and bags of potential.

You will be part of a team that produces the Weston Mercury and North Somerset Times. We need a reporter who will also take ownership of growing our online audience in the wider Devon and Somerset areas.

This is an exciting and varied job. You could be doing a Facebook Live report from a town centre during a food festival, running a live blog from a breaking news incident, and writing a heart-warming community story all on the same shift.

The role will involve occasional weekend work as part of a rota, once you have established yourself in the team.

We will give you the on-the-job training and support needed to help you become a first-class reporter in a lively patch, working for one of the UK’s biggest news publishers.

About you

This role suits a reporter who can make an impact, with big ideas and ambitions, an eye for a story and a flair for social media.

You will be expected to make contacts on your patch and find great stories. As a reporter you must be there at the best and worst times in people’s lives, and you need to handle both appropriately. You could be talking to business owners about how they are tackling the cost-of-living crisis, talking to people who have suffered bereavement or injustice, or interviewing a local political figure.

Our reporters are expected to meet audience and subscription benchmarks, which means learning how to find a good story, how to tell it across different platforms and how to get it in front of more people through social media and SEO.

The ideal candidate will already have the gold standard NCTJ diploma including shorthand and a driving licence, but the right attitude is more important.

We are an inclusive workplace and welcome applicants from all backgrounds.

We do not expect you to know it all on day one, but we do expect a can-do attitude and keenness to learn. If you do, you’ll get lots of support and be part of a great team.

About Newsquest Media Group

We are a media company with a difference. We are committed to bringing a voice to your region by investing in a passionate team of journalists who proudly serve their communities by sharing authoritative news that readers trust.

Our sales teams provide local businesses with highly responsive digital advertising and marketing solutions.

We are one of the largest regional news publishers in the UK and have a portfolio of more than 250+ local news brands and magazines online and in print. With an online audience of 41 million users a month and 7 million readers a week in print, our content is read by a substantial proportion of the UK population.

In addition to our local news brands, we own a number of digital pure play and specialist media businesses such as s1jobs and s1homes, Exchange & Mart, and Newsquest Specialist Media. We also own LOCALiQ, an award-winning digital marketing agency that specialises in driving more leads, increasing online growth and generating return on marketing investment on behalf of thousands of UK SMBs.