Publicist, BBC News (maternity cover)

JOB BAND: C
CONTRACT TYPE: 12 month FTC/attachment
DEPARTMENT: External Communications (News)
LOCATION: London
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £32,000-£40,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE
Join the BBC News communications team! You’ll be working on high-profile, highly-scrutinised content which is consumed by around three quarters of UK adults each week.

As Publicist, Domestic News, you’ll play a key part in publicising programmes and investigations, and managing our reputation.

The successful candidate will promote the BBC’s news programmes and investigations across video, audio and online, targeting UK media to raise the profile of the BBC’s journalism and share the BBC’s key messages. The role will require a keen news sense and ability to handle reputational issues.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
We have a fantastic, supportive and fun team, led by a great boss. You’ll get experience in issue handling and reputation management, as well as proactively publicising the best news content the BBC has to offer. The domestic and international teams work closely and flexibly, which might mean opportunities for overseas travel.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:
• Manage domestic publicity for BBC News UK output.
• Work with editorial teams on a range of content from podcasts, to TV and radio documentaries and digital programming.
• Liaise with senior stakeholders and handle potential reputational issues.
• Collaborate on pan-BBC News initiatives and projects with other publicists.
• The role sometimes involves travel to manage publicity on the ground for high profile launches and/or events as well as meeting key stakeholders and media.
• This role requires being part of a rota to work on call over some weekends so the successful candidate will need to be prepared to work flexibly when required.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
• A track record of creating and delivering successful publicity campaigns.
• Experience of crafting press releases, pitching feature ideas, understanding TV and podcast promotion, working with external journalists, and creating social media content.
• An understanding of the reputational issues and challenges facing BBC News and the news industry in general.
• Experience of managing reputational issues and good judgment when dealing with crisis communications.
• Experience of stakeholder management and the ability to brief people on relevant communication issues.

DESIRABLE:
• A keen interest in news and current affairs.
• Experience in organising events.
• A good understanding of social media and digital communications as well as experience of coming up with ideas for creating digital content.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.