Senior Journalist (19016)

Job Package

Job Reference: 19016 

Job Band : D

Salary: £39,800 - £45,000 per annum depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. 

Contract : Fixed Term Contract / Attachment until the 31st March 2025

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.

Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.

Benefits - We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more. 

Job Purpose

BBC Wales News and Current Affairs is Wales’ leading news provider with an integrated team of journalists working across radio, TV, online and social in English and Welsh. Our aims are excellence, collaboration and innovation - for our teams and for our output. The digital news team is responsible for BBC Wales’ digital news service – in text, video and on social. The team is at the forefront of BBC journalism, combining breaking and developing news with accessible analysis and explanation of events. It aims to deliver the highest-quality journalism, with a focus on younger and underserved audiences, and bring together output from the whole BBC Wales newsroom. 

We are looking for a Senior Journalist to work in digital news as part of a wider team of senior journalists who are responsible for content on the BBC Wales news index and its associated digital platforms. This job involves shift working and weekend working.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

The successful candidate will work with colleagues in digital, on the multimedia news-desk and in the wider newsroom to generate engaging and innovative content, curate the Wales online indexes and liaise with the social/video team.

Ensuring all content complies with BBC editorial and legal standards, forward planning skills and subbing will also form core duties of the role.

There will also be an expectation for the successful candidate to liaise and manage relationships with other outlets in BBC Wales news as well as in other BBC centres.

Knowledge, Skills, Training & Experience

The successful candidate will have a proven track record of originating and producing a range of stories, they will demonstrate substantial journalism experience with a high standard of editorial judgment, writing ability and production skills. Demonstrable experience of writing creatively with accuracy and clarity is essential.

Having a profound understanding of the law as it relates to journalism is key along with in-depth knowledge of editorial guidelines. The following criteria are also essential for the position:

• Ability to work effectively as a member of a team, leading where required, prioritising and assigning tasks, working to deadlines and resolving conflicts as necessary.
• Ability to write creatively in an engaging manner and to adapt with accuracy, clarity and style appropriate to differing audiences and forms of media suitable for multimedia output.
• Working knowledge of the digital audience and of the stories and techniques needed to connect with underserved audiences. This should include familiarity with tools and dashboards such as Telescope and Chartbeat.
• Excellent understanding of how best to encourage colleagues from across the newsroom to deliver first-rate, relevant content for Online.
• Demonstrable knowledge of Welsh affairs, including the politics and geography in Wales.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.