Manchester United Writer - Manchester Evening News

Manchester United Writer - Manchester Evening News

Are you mad about football? Do you know your De Bruynes from your De Geas?

The Manchester Evening News is hiring a Manchester United Writer to help bring Manchester United fans to our website by creating, publishing and sharing engaging pieces.

In this role you will contribute to ensuring our digital and social media platforms are first-class, engaging, comprehensive turn-to sources for United fans.

We expect to gain a high volume of candidates for this role, so please don't hesitate to apply as we will review candidates as they come in.

We are Reach because it's what we do.

Every day our newsbrands - national and regional, in print and online - reach millions of people up and down the country. We are the UK's largest news publisher, with influential national newsbrands such as the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday People, Daily Record, and more than 100 distinguished regional titles such as Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo.

Our brands have a long heritage of being trusted sources of news and information, with our editorial conviction and high standards of journalism providing audiences with timely information and opinion across multiple platforms.

Last year we sold 540 million newspapers, and our network of over 70 websites provide 24/7 coverage of news, sport and showbiz stories, viewed by 110m unique browsers every month.

Key Responsibilities

• Produce a range of compelling Manchester United articles to engage and excite the fans to agreed deadlines, as directed. This could be exclusives, breaking news, long reads, blogs, podcasts, videos or trending content
• Work with the Manchester United editor and other senior colleagues on major stories and audience opportunities
• Attend matches and provide live coverage of games and events for live blogs as and when required
• Understand the issues which Manchester United supporters care about and create articles and pieces accordingly
• Own niche article areas around your clubs including academy stories and stadium news
• Take direction from editors in producing fan-first content and distributing it to maximise audience
• Have high-article production standards. Understand the importance of headlines and sell in helping pieces perform well
• Source third-party content, including video, audio and pictures, to add value
• Ensure pieces are written with strong search engine optimisation in mind
• Ensure articles are produced with the correct metadata at all times
• Promote the Manchester Evening News' United pieces and engage with fans through your own social channels. Work with our social media experts to grow your following
• Use social media to engage with and build our audiences
• Take part in podcasts or videos as required

The Ideal Candidate

• A Reach Plc or equivalent journalist qualification (or relevant time-served experience)
• Excellent digital storytelling skills
• Excellent knowledge of Manchester United
• Good understanding of digital publishing including experience of using web publishing systems, understanding of SEO, digital audience behaviour and analytics
• Great social media understanding and professional experience of using social media platforms
• Understanding of editorial strategy and brand values
• Awareness and understanding of how people use the internet to follow football news
• Comfortable at getting out and about and making contacts
• Ability to shoot and edit video and audio
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to take instruction as well as manage own workload efficiently
• Energy, enthusiasm and self-motivation
• Ability to work quickly and effectively under deadline pressure
• Ability to work well as part of a team
• Flexible, creative, innovative
• Up-to-date knowledge of media law and IPSO code
• Full driving licence

Package Description

In addition to competitive salaries, 25 days holiday, bonus structures (if applicable) and a contributory pension scheme, Reach plc have a wealth of flexible benefits on offer. These include holiday purchase up to ten days per year, childcare vouchers, cycle scheme, a technology scheme in conjunction with Curry's PC World, car scheme, health cash plan, employee loans and lots of high street discounts! Our business is fully committed to health and wellbeing in the workplace with an employee assistance programme and trained mental health first aiders across the business.

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.