Newsquest is looking for top-class trending news reporters to help lead its online coverage across the UK.

Every day our online news brands reach millions of people right across the UK, and you will be joining a team of driven, innovative journalists taking our search content to the next level as Newsquest invests in the future of its industry-leading digital coverage.

This role presents an exciting opportunity for a digitally savvy journalist with knowledge of SEO trends and practices to spot the latest (and next!) trending news stories, features and lifestyle content. 

The key for this role is tapping into these topics and making them not only relevant but insightful for local audiences, as well as keeping on top of what is resonating in your area.

You will be delivering the sort of fast, agile and dynamic coverage optimised for SEO that our readers expect and deserve in 2024 – often before they know they want to read it. 

You will be passionate about digital storytelling, with a desire to come up with new and innovative ways of telling those stories using a vast array of different skills, tools and platforms.

A big part of the job will also be immersing yourself in social media through various monitoring tools to help you tell your stories and spot the next big thing, whether that be hard news, showbiz and TV, celebrity, news features, explainers and ‘news you can use’.

We want to give our readers the content they want to read when they want to read it.

Your job will be to anticipate this and use your sparkling writing skills to ensure our coverage is the best, and where local audiences choose to come first.  

Key responsibilities 

• Using your SEO skills to reach the largest possible audience 
• Using search tools to research and understand the topics people are searching for 
• Identifying and exploring topics in which local brands can legitimately become an authority 
• Producing high-quality, accurate digital news stories, live blogs and features to deadlines as agreed by editors
• Responding quickly to breaking news events and support newsrooms with accurate and valuable content
• Working with the head of central content to understand what to research and write next 
• Building communities online and in real life to share stories with once published, and become engaged with readers about those stories 
• Thinking creatively to come up with new original story ideas and ways to deliver them to our audience that suit our digital platforms 
• Spotting and developing national and regional content that could resonate in your patch and making it relevant and interesting to our readers 
• Helping devise and manage a carefully plotted SEO forward plan calendar to ensure we don’t miss a beat  
• Ensuring every piece of content is thoroughly researched and balanced before publication 
• With guidance from editors, using analytics to identify what our readers like and what they want next from our coverage 
• Joining forces with Newsquest’s central team and your counterparts across the UK to share ideas, best practices, success stories and skills 
• Communicating with newsrooms around the country to ensure your coverage chimes with the local market  

Our ideal candidate will have: 

• An understanding of search engine optimisation (SEO) and skills in producing content which works in search 
• Knowing what readers want to read, using both your keen news sense and data insights  
• Passion for telling stories which will grow new diverse audiences 
• Exceptional attention to detail 
• The ability to write – and think – quickly under pressure 
• A keen news sense 
• Bags of ideas for how stories can be presented in the best possible way for our audiences 
• An understanding of what audiences want, and when 
• Excellent social media skills and the ability to spot stories and trending topics 
• NCTJ qualification (including 100wpm shorthand) 
• Excellent knowledge of relevant media law 
• An adaptable style to produce everything from live blogs and listicles to long reads and features 
• Great people skills and the ability to get on with a wide range of people in the community 
• A high level of organisation and the ability to manage your diary out on patch 
• Collaborative skills to pool ideas with the wider digital reporting team and take on board suggestions. 

The company

Newsquest is 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.

As well as dedicated sales teams which provide local businesses with highly responsive digital advertising and marketing solutions.

Newsquest Media Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all community sections regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

Our recruitment process will consist of various stages and activities, as part of our commitment to fairness to all applicants, we will consider any adjustments that could help you.