Social Spider Community News is a growing group of social enterprise local newspapers based in north, east and central London – publishing high quality newspapers with and for local communities. We are looking for a journalist to join our team as part of the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The ideal candidate will be knowledgeable about and interested in the workings of local public bodies, focusing mainly on councils but also covering schools, the NHS and the police. Your job will be to hold power to account and keep local people informed about the decisions being taken on their behalf.

About The Role

This is a full time, 35 hours per week role as Local Democracy Reporter for the London Boroughs of Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering.

The role involves ensuring that local residents are kept informed and engaged with local democratic issues.

The reporter is responsible for providing reliable, fair, balanced, accurate and timely coverage of local democracy issues within Waltham Forest, Redbridge and Havering.

The reporter will be based with community newspaper Waltham Forest Echo at Social Spider CIC’s office at The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane, E17 7HA

The annual salary is £25,476.50

Responsible to: Editor, Waltham Forest Echo

Purpose Of The Role

• To ensure that matters, decisions and issues relating to the public authorities are covered in a timely, impartial and audience-friendly way
• To generate multimedia content which engages the public and which meets all standards set by the partnership in terms of quality, impartiality, consistency and legal accuracy
• Be a public ambassador for the project and become a trusted source of news and information about the public authorities covered

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver strong content in a multimedia way daily, focusing on text but also providing images, audio and video where possible.
• Ensure agendas for councils and public bodies are scrutinised, identifying issues and stories which need to be brought to the public’s attention.
• Working with your content editor, identify which meetings need to be covered and reported
• Build strong contacts for story-gathering within local communities
• Ensure all content produced has suitable metadata attached
• Deliver live coverage as and when required

Person Specification

• We are looking for a candidate who is familiar with East London and has:
• Good writing skills, up-to-date legal knowledge, shorthand proficiency (e.g. 100 wpm)
• National Qualification in Journalism (NQJ) (or similar) qualification, or a minimum of 2 years’ experience as a reporter in a daily news environment and/or working to daily news deadlines is highly desirable
• Excellent communicator on social media
• Excellent at working under pressure and identifying priorities
• Be familiar with digital tools and techniques across a range of mobile devices
• Strong understanding of working and processes within local government
• Demonstrable experience of delivering great ideas for content
• Strong contact-building skills
• Proficiency taking images, shooting video and gathering audio

How To Apply

If you are interested in this role, please email a CV, a short covering letter outlining your interest and relevant experience to david@socialspider.com. Please mention Journo Resources when applying, it really helps us out.

The closing date for expressions of interest is Wednesday 11th August 2021. Interviews will take place from Monday 16th August 2021.

About Waltham Forest Echo

Waltham Forest Echo is a community newspaper for the Waltham Forest area, it is written by and for local people. It is published by Walthamstow-based social enterprise, Social Spider CIC – and owned by WFWellComm CIC, a consortium of local charities and social enterprises. The newspaper promotes the work of local community organisations and voluntary sector groups, along with arts and cultural activities taking place in the local area. It also provides an opportunity for local people to express their opinions on what is going on in the area.

Waltham Forest Echo launched in May 2014 as a quarterly 16-page tabloid. It is now a monthly 20-page tabloid. 10,000 copies of each issue are distributed via a mixture of door-to-door and community distribution.

About Social Spider CIC

Social Spider Community Interest Company (CIC) is a not-for-profit social enterprise that publishes five community newspapers – Waltham Forest Echo, Tottenham Community Press, Enfield Dispatch, EC1 Echo and Barnet Post – and carries out research and consultancy projects focused on social enterprise and social innovation.

For more information on Social Spider CIC’s approach to local news, go to: https://medium.com/@startspreadingnews