Social Streets is looking for an Editorial Assistant to work on one of our local news and culture magazines in East London, Poplar LDN. You’ll be working for the Editor-in-Chief in the same office and alongside the team for our flagship title Roman Road LDN.

This is an opportunity to join a small but ambitious media company that is pioneering a model of community journalism to strengthen the local community – using tech for good.  As this is a small team, you will gain experience in every aspect of journalism and social media and you will be given the opportunity to take on increasing responsibility very quickly.

Responsibilities and duties

Finding stories

• Visit a plethora of tiny community groups, many with people with English as a second language and most of whom have no online presence eg email is not an option and stories have to be found in person.
• Build relationships with local charities, campaigners, pressure groups, social enterprise to report on their work
• Pound the pavements to visit local shops, businesses and community centres
• Speak to strangers on the street to gather public opinion and get the view from the everyday person
• Immerse yourself in social media – we find a lot of stories on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Next Door

Creating content

• Interview people, from the local shop owners and ‘local celebrities’, to marginalised people who are sharing personal and sometimes difficult experiences such as mental health, injustice or discrimination
• Write articles in a range of styles, from factual news to human interest stories and light listicles
• Edit work from our contributors
• Manage and build our content calendar ensuring we meet our content strategy and create timely content
• Source and manage our reader competitions
• Produce our weekly newsletter using Mailchimp

Social media management

• Optimise and share our content across social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
• Manage our online communities, starting conversations, responding to comments and moderating the Facebook groups we manage
• Create unique photographic content for social media platform
• Come up with ideas for and help manage our social media collaborations with other titles/brands/bloggers to extend reach
• Develop our video and audio content

Optimising content

• Oversee production and quality control of the website, applying best practice on page SEO
• Build a network of reciprocated links
• Help repurpose and refresh evergreen and cornerstone content
• Use analytical tools to track performance of web content, newsletters and social channels and work with the editor to make improvements and inform strategy
• Analysise our data to create monthly performance reports for every platform (website and social media platforms)

Skills required

• A passion for local community! You will be able to see the extraordinary in the ordinary and have the drive to seek out stories from hard-to-reach groups
• A people person – you will need to be a people person, able to strike up conversations with strangers and build trust and empathy with people from diverse backgrounds
• A head for data. You will also need to be comfortable dealing with data, optimising content, understanding hashtags, cross-linking, alt tags for images, writing meta data and building powerful URLs
• An eye for visuals. We creating inspiring images that elicit pride and empathy. You’ll be able to suitably moving images for social platforms such as Instagram.
• Be an ideas person We are helping develop a new model of sustainable community journalism that no wonder else has done. You will need to keep abreast of what others are doing and be willing to try new things.

Make a difference

Social Streets is a not-for-profit news and media company with the charitable objective of strengthening small communities, especially in poorer economies. This is an opportunity to use your skills to help have a positive impact on local community life. You will be helping to develop networks, celebrate local heritage and culture, promote local businesses and the local economy, raise awareness of the lived experience of people from minority groups, and create a sense of civic pride and belonging for the whole community.

You will also have the opportunity to be mentored by founder Tabitha Stapely. Stapely has extensive experience and networks in the world of magazine publishing, digital content strategy, social enterprise, and local authority. Stapely was previously Digital Director at Elle magazine; is an alumna of Cambridge Social Ventures; is an RSA Fellow, and has been invited to be a Fellow of Social Innovation at Cambridge University.

View Social Streets on Linkedin

Experience, salary and working arrangements

Location: you will be based at our small office above Abbotts Flooring on Roman Road in Bow, East London.

Hours: Full time but we have a short working week of Tuesday to Friday. Hours 9am to 5.30pm, per day, Tuesday to Friday. You will be expected to attend occasional evening and weekend events for editorial purposes.

Contract: PAYE scheme on a one-year agreement with a three-month probationary period.

Annual office closure: The office closes for four weeks in August and for the days between Christmas and New Year, continental style. Another week of leave can be taken at the time of the worker’s choice.

Salary: Starting from £21,500 PRO RATA for recent graduates, increasing with experience.

Experience: The ideal candidate will have one to two years of experience as an intern/assistant in one or more of Journalism, Digital Marketing or Social Media. If you have little or no experience, please enquire about our three-month internship programme instead.

Application process

Email tabitha@socialstreets.co before 9pm on Sunday 15th August 2021 with:

• Your CV of course!
• Links to any professional Twitter/Instagram accounts and/or your Linkedin page.
• A covering letter explaining why community journalism matters in our society along with any experience in community outreach

Round 1 – 15-20 minute video call interview. Opportunity to speak to a previous employee.

Round 2 – Preparation work and meeting in person.

Round 3 – Final interview for last three candidates.