The Role
Lead the Western Telegraph and Wales Weeklies portfolio, setting editorial direction and maintaining journalistic standards. Manage, mentor and develop newsroom staff, drive digital audience growth, oversee print and digital production, identify impactful stories, represent the brands in local communities, build stakeholder relationships, and support future editorial growth across Wales while ensuring legal, ethical and company standards are met.
Summary Generated by Built In
Editor, Western Telegraph and Wales Weeklies
Haverfordwest | Full Time
The Western Telegraph has been championing West Wales for generations. Now we are looking for an outstanding editor to lead it into its next chapter. This is one of the most exciting editorial leadership roles in Welsh journalism. You'll lead the Western Telegraph, our flagship West Wales title, alongside a portfolio of trusted local newspapers and websites serving communities across Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.
You'll be a visible leader both in the newsroom and across the communities you serve, building relationships, supporting your team and ensuring our journalism remains connected to the audiences that matter most. This is a hands-on role where you'll set the editorial agenda, champion high standards and create an environment where great journalism thrives. We are looking for someone who can drive exclusives, shape front pages, coach reporters, lead campaigns, represent the brand in the community and drive audience growth.
You'll lead a talented team from our Haverfordwest newsroom while working closely with colleagues across Wales, including occasional travel to Newport.
The successful candidate will have excellent news judgement, strong digital skills and a passion for local journalism. They'll understand how to grow audiences, develop journalists and ensure our titles remain essential reading both online and in print.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead one of Wales' most respected local news brands, setting the editorial direction and maintaining the highest standards of journalism.
- Manage, mentor and develop a team of journalists, creating a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.
- Drive digital audience growth through engaging content, innovative storytelling and a strong understanding of audience trends.
- Oversee the production of high-quality print and digital content, ensuring accuracy, relevance and impact across all platforms.
- Represent the title within the communities we serve, building strong relationships with key stakeholders, community groups and local decision-makers.
- Be a visible and active leader, supporting your team both in the newsroom and out in the community while championing great local journalism.
- Work closely with senior editorial leaders to help shape the future of local journalism across Wales and identify new opportunities for growth.
- Ensure editorial content meets legal, ethical and company standards while protecting and enhancing the reputation of the brand.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- Proven experience leading high-performing editorial or newsroom teams.
- Strong digital publishing expertise, with a track record of growing and engaging audiences across multiple platforms.
- Excellent news judgement, with the ability to identify impactful stories and set a clear editorial agenda.
- Confident people leader, able to coach, motivate and develop journalists at all stages of their careers.
- A strong understanding of media law, editorial standards and journalistic ethics.
- NCTJ qualification or equivalent professional journalism experience.
- Passion for local journalism, community storytelling and the role trusted news brands play in public life.
- Excellent relationship-building skills, with the ability to represent the brand across the communities we serve.
If you believe local journalism matters and have the vision, leadership and ambition to help shape its future in Wales, we'd love to hear from you.
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
- Proven experience leading high-performing editorial or newsroom teams
- Strong digital publishing expertise with a record of growing and engaging audiences across multiple platforms
- Excellent news judgement and ability to set a clear editorial agenda
- People leadership skills, including coaching, motivating and developing journalists
- Strong understanding of media law, editorial standards and journalistic ethics
- NCTJ qualification or equivalent professional journalism experience
- Passion for local journalism and community storytelling
- Excellent relationship-building and community representation skills
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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.
