Commissioning Editor, Arts -12 Month FTC – MAT cover – The Times (London)

The Times is seeking a commissioning editor to join the arts department on a maternity cover contract.

The successful candidate will commission and edit engaging features, fix interviews and pitch strong ideas for arts stories for digital and print.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced, organised and creative journalist who thrives in a fast-paced environment, with excellent contacts in the field and a keen interest and knowledge of all genres of the arts.

Apply with a covering letter and your CV by September 11.

Responsibilities

Commission distinctive arts content that can feature across the different sections of The Times on all platforms
Edit features and interviews for the arts pages in print and digital
Pitch digital content ideas for arts, commissioning content that engages subscribers and attracts new subscribers through search
Be reader-focused when commissioning content
Work with the audience team to promote arts content through social media and search
Work with production colleagues in design, graphics, pictures and sub-editing to produce arts content and supplements as efficiently as possible, meeting deadlines

Skills and experience

Experience working as a commissioning editor on a national newspaper or magazine
Experience in and a demonstrable passion for arts journalism with good contacts in arts and culture
Good understanding of SEO techniques to maximise search results
Able to use social media platforms to engage current and new audiences for The Times
Highly organised and strong planning skills
Persuasive presentation skills, well-developed interpersonal skills, with the ability to problem-solve and negotiate positive outcomes
Able to communicate succinctly and effectively
Experience working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams
A strong understanding of editorial compliance and regulatory issues

We are News UK: One of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland, our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local radio stations across Ireland. In 2022 we launched TalkTV, a major new TV channel available to everyone across the UK, delivering a schedule of news, current affairs, entertainment and sport, with Piers Morgan in a primetime evening show. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning digital and print, audio and video, events and experiences, our brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. News UK is wholly owned by News Corp.

Life at News: At News UK our people are our heartbeat – they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive. Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like. Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.

We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes. We also have 11 employee-led networks.

We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes:

A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;
25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions
Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes
‘Bikes for Work’ scheme
Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.

News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.