Audience Builder (Sport)

Deputy Football Editor


The Manchester Evening News is seeking to recruit an Deputy football Editor to take our United and City coverage to a new level.

As a senior role on the sportsdesk, the Deputy football Editor will be expected to drive our United and City content on a day-to-day basis, liaising with senior newsroom stakeholders.

The successful candidate will also be expected to deputise for the Head of Football in their absence, working directly with the team to manage their output

Your job will be to grow our audience and make sure our Football Desk staff are pressing all the right buttons to attract, engage and keep new audiences.

We are already the go-to place for Old Trafford or Etihad content but you will develop and expand strategies to make what we do even better.

Reporting to the Digital Publishing Editor Football, you'll be bursting with ideas which embrace the best of digital journalistic.

We want you to innovate and take our coverage to the next level.

Key Responsibilities

• Work with the Football Digital Publishing Editor and Senior Editor to develop and manage the football editorial strategy. Shape and deliver a strategy that ensures a sustainable approach to audience growth, with equal focus on acquisition and engagement
• Track major stories, breaking news and fan conversations and use them to generate immediate audience feedback and content ideas
• Maximise opportunities for audience engagement and interaction
• Lead by example in producing content that our audiences want to read
• Look beyond traditional football stories and consider 'off the pitch' issues that fans care about
• Develop and implement a strategy to generate audience from trending content
• Develop and implement a strategy around search and evergreen content
• Plan and commission content around large evergreen audience opportunities
• Ensure audience data drives content decisions and monitor audience data to identify and explore growth opportunities.
• Support the team in ensuring audience targets are met
• Work with the Football Digital Publishing Editor and Social Media Editor football to develop and grow social media channels
• Identify and experiment in ways to find new audiences whether this means targeting an area of interest, trying a new platform, technique or tactic. Be prepared to innovate.
• Organise and maintain a podcast schedule and take part in podcasts as required
  
  

The Ideal Candidate

• Reach Plc or equivalent journalist qualification (or relevant time-served experience)
• At least two years of experience in content writing, editing and/or management
• Demonstrable experience of team management and motivation
• A strong and perceptive understanding of audience behaviour
• Strong experience and understanding of football content and audiences
• Excellent understanding of digital storytelling, SEO and social.
• Quality storytelling experience with a thorough understanding of how to create engaging content
• Strong digital publishing skills including experience of using a content management system
• First-class organisational skills
• Ability to use and apply learning through digital analytics
• Ability to present confidently and make a positive contribution to meetings
• Adaptable, creative, flexible with lots of flair
• A positive, can-do attitude
• Excellent attention to detail
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Self-motivated, highly organised and able to take instruction as well as manage own workload efficiently
• Ability to work quickly and effectively under deadline pressure
• Ability to work well as part of a team
• Up-to-date knowledge of media law and IPSO code

Package Description

In addition to competitive salaries, bonus structures (if applicable) and a contributory pension scheme, Reach plc offer a whole host of voluntary flexible benefits. These include a car scheme, holiday purchase, childcare vouchers, cycle scheme, staff discounts, season tickets & parking loans and an employee assistance programme.

We are committed to equal opportunity for all. We may collect relevant data for monitoring as part of our candidate registration process. We will be reviewing applications as they are received so please don't delay in submitting your application.