Assistant Digital Features Editor

Assistant Digital Features Editor

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.

The role requires a self-motivated, energetic individual who has extensive media experience and is used to operating within a fast-paced news environment.

Your Role: As the Assistant Digital Features Editor at The Sun, you will develop and implement a diverse content strategy, commission and edit feature stories, and lead a creative team of writers. You'll stay current with trends, coordinate multimedia content, collaborate with other departments, and engage with our audience. Additionally, you'll innovate with new formats and mentor junior writers, ensuring our features are timely, relevant, and captivating. Your role is crucial in maintaining The Sun’s reputation for high-quality, engaging feature journalism.

Day to day you will:

• Generate and commission a daily list of top-quality editorial feature ideas.
• Work with other editors to ensure all copy is of the highest standard and honed for digital with the best boxouts, video, graphics and expert analysis.
• Edit copy across a wide variety of topics to the highest possible standard.
• Spin features ideas from the big news stories and ‘talkers’ of the day and execute them to tight deadlines.
• Spot social media trends and know how to make them into clickable features for the Sun audience.
• Use digital editorial analytics tools to adapt the features strategy and drive ideas.
• Develop an awareness as to how we use social media and suggest collaborations with Sun celebs.
• Commission unique and punchy op-ed pieces from named writers that trigger debate and engagement.
• Edit and commission extracts and interviews from up-and-coming books, podcasts, films and TV shows.
• Nurture a brimming contacts book of writers and PRs who can deliver unique content ideas.
• Mentor junior feature writers in finding unique case studies and developing their feature writing skills.
• Keep a forward-planning document up to date with key editorial ideas.
• Working a shift pattern of one week of later shifts in every three may be necessary.
• Have a thorough knowledge of the IPSO Code of Conduct, media law and ethical considerations

What we’re looking for from you:

• Deep understanding of The Sun brand, both print and digital
• Previous experience of using a digital CMS for editing is essential
• Unflappable under pressure and delivers work at a consistently high standard
• Proactive and displays a willingness to take on any task
• Always takes initiative in order to achieve desired results
• Self-starter, organised and a good problem-solver, able to eliminate obstacles through creative and adaptive approaches

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.

We offer a flexible working arrangement where employees are expected to be in the office a minimum of three days per week. For the remaining two days, there is the option to work remotely if desired.

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 careers@news.co.uk.