The Role
Produce fast, SEO-optimised digital news, features and live blogs by spotting trending topics using search and social monitoring. Research, write and publish accurate, engaging content for local audiences, use analytics to inform coverage, collaborate with central teams and build community engagement.
Summary Generated by Built In
Newsquest is looking for a top-class trending news reporter 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’ll 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 digital and multimedia-savvy journalist with a 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’ll be delivering the sort of fast, agile and dynamic coverage optimised for SEO that our readers expect and deserve in 2026 – often before they know they want to read it.
You’ll 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
- Respond quickly to breaking news events and support newsrooms with accurate and valuable content
- Work with the Head of Central Digital 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 practice, success stories and skills
- Communicating with newsrooms around the country to ensure your coverage chimes with the local market
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- 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 own diary out on patch
- Collaborative skills to pool ideas with the wider digital reporting team and take on board suggestions
Benefits
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays + your birthday off
- Holiday buy scheme for extra flexibility
- Structured career progression & ongoing training
- Pension plan
- Employee Helpline counselling and advice
- Perks & discounts including:
- Gym membership
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Eye care
- Retail discounts
- Team building days & annual volunteer charity day
About
A name you can trust - we’ve been a part of your community for generations.LOCALiQ is the name for all that Newsquest Media Group does today, from trusted local newspapers and websites to digital marketing services that can help you reach new customers as you’ve never been able to before.LOCALiQ is the name that combines your trusted local news brand with digital marketing.It hasn’t replaced the name of your local Newsquest newspaper and its website, but it encompasses everything we can offer.Those services include online advertising and best-in-class digital marketing, backed by data gathered from our 1.5 million local campaigns and 45 million monthly users.Put our experts to work for you, and we believe you’re hiring the best marketing partner a business can have.
Skills Required
- Understanding of search engine optimisation (SEO) and producing content that works in search
- Skills using search tools to research and understand topics people are searching for
- Excellent social media skills and ability to spot trending topics
- Ability to produce high-quality, accurate digital news stories, live blogs and features to deadlines
- NCTJ qualification including 100wpm shorthand
- Excellent knowledge of relevant media law
- Exceptional attention to detail
- Ability to write and think quickly under pressure
- Keen news sense and ability to spot and develop stories for local audiences
- Adaptable writing style to produce live blogs, listicles, long-reads and features
- Ability to use analytics to identify audience preferences and inform coverage
- High level of organisation and ability to manage your own diary on patch
- Collaborative skills to work with central digital team and counterparts across the UK
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The Company
What We Do
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. Our parent company is Gannett Inc, the largest news publisher in the US. Gannett is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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