Assistant Head of News

The Sun is the biggest news brand in the UK, publishing hundreds of stories a day and reaching over 170m unique users digitally every month. Its exclusives set the news agenda and its campaigns have changed the lives of many. Delivering news, entertainment, and sports coverage to millions of readers every day. With a rich history spanning decades, we are dedicated to providing accurate, insightful, and engaging content across print and digital platforms.

The Sun has a mass-market audience and aims to appeal to a diverse audience in the UK and beyond.

Your Role: 

We are looking for a new Assistant Head of News to help grow our award-winning operation. This is a rare opportunity for the right applicant to join The Sun’s news desk.

Day to day you will: 

• Help lead the online news operation day to day, managing a team of reporters and overseeing digital editorial content

• Develop The Sun's off diary operation and improve the quality and quantity of our original content

• Write headlines, manage workflow and be across all major news stories

• Manage and run reporters on the ground going after the biggest stories of the day, as well as seeing tips through to finished stories

• Liaise with agencies and freelancers to make sure our coverage stays ahead of the competition

• Identify big news trends and confidently package and sell stories

• Liaise with our audience team to ensure content is optimised 

• Edit reporters’ copy and help them develop stories, writing with accuracy and flair 

• Train and develop our talented young reporters and get the most out of them

What we are looking for from you: 

• Experience working at national newspaper with a track record of delivering exclusives

• Experience of running multiple reporters on the ground at once

• Knowledge of and experience in recognised search tools

• Experience of leading news operations on occasion

• Solid legal and IPSO knowledge

• Solid contacts with agencies and freelancers around the UK

• Flair and an ability to spot the hidden potential in stories

• Unflappable under pressure and delivers work at a consistently high standard

• Positive attitude and good team player

• Ability to use multiple content systems including Wordpress

• Can demonstrate an understanding of the The Sun brand, both print and digital

News UK is 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 and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.

Life at News

Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information.

To do this, we believe our employees must represent different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy , which focuses on three main priorities - attracting talent from a wider, more representative pool, developing equity programmes to drive better representation in our leadership, and ensuring diversity and inclusivity in our workforce as well as the journalism and content we produce. We also currently have 12 employee led networks and groups that support our strategy and connect like minded employees socially.

Benefits

Some of our benefits include:

• 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 including coverage for pre-existing conditions

• Discounted gym memberships , free ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual yoga classes

• ‘Bikes for Work’ and ‘Electric Car’ scheme

• Access to exclusive events Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times. Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities

• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling

• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%

• 25 days holiday , plus bank holidays and up to 4 volunteering days per year

We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to perform to their best when applying for a role. If you would like to receive any information in a different way or for us to do anything differently to support you apply for any of our roles please contact us on [email protected] .