18 months ago, we launched our first My brands in Greater Manchester – dedicated to providing news from Greater Manchester’s boroughs, in addition to the region wide service the MEN is famous for. 

We’re now expanding to make sure the whole of the region gets the detailed district news service it deserves – and we need your help to do it.

We launched Reach Boost in September, a fully funded training scheme that is paying for aspiring journalists to train while in full-time employment in newsrooms across London and the South East region.

The scheme was designed to improve representation in our newsroom and involves partnering with NCTJ-accredited course providers to take on and support students to achieve formal journalism training.

Following on from the success of Reach Boost we are now bringing this unique opportunity to Manchester! We will be offering a passionate and creative aspiring journalist a full time position working at the Manchester Evening News where they will also complete a fully funded training course to become NCTJ qualified.

Is this opportunity right for you? For starters, you will be passionate about the news! Perhaps you haven’t considered a job in journalism before, or haven’t been able to access formal journalism training.

We are passionate about serving our diverse communities better and would love to hear from you. We believe that together we can improve how we cover our areas and offer opportunities to people who may not have considered this as a career before. At Reach, we strongly believe in the benefits of flexible working, work/life balance and autonomy in our day to day jobs.

Key Responsibilities

What will I be doing as a trainee journalist?

• You will be working as part of a team to produce digital storytelling and to cover live news
• You will have the opportunity to provide live coverage of breaking news
• You will build strong contacts for story-gathering in our existing and underserved communities
• With training and support, you will be comfortable interviewing, taking pictures and filming when out on the job
• You will love all things social media and use these skills to build audiences and communities, ensuring content in shared on social platforms

The Ideal Candidate

Who are we looking for?

• You will be creative, curious, and have an interest in journalism
• You will understand social media and storytelling across social platforms
• We want you to be passionate about the stories you believe are important from our many diverse communities as we seek to grow new audiences
• You will have at least 5 GCSE’s grade C or above including Maths and English

So, Who Are We?

Manchester Evening News is part of Reach plc. You might not have heard of us but we have probably met without you even realising it.

We are home to the UK and Ireland’s most iconic digital platforms, magazines and newspapers. From the Mirror, Daily Express and OK!, to our regional titles such as the Liverpool Echo, BirminghamLive and the Manchester Evening News (plus lots more), our brands and the stories we cover are as varied as our people.

We help all kinds of people share experiences through our stories because we believe this is what makes us human. Oh, and we should probably also mention that with a monthly readership of 47 million people, Reach is the largest commercial publisher in the UK.

At Reach, not only will you feel better understood, you will also feel you understand other people better too.

Package Description

What can we offer you?

We are offering fully-funded NCTJ journalism training, a competitive starting salary and benefits including;

• Mentoring and support
• Career progression
• 25 days holiday per annum
• Contributory pension scheme
• Holiday purchase scheme
• Free wellbeing apps and coaching support
• Plus lots of high street discounts!

Reach plc believes diversity brings benefits for our customers, our business and our people. This is why we are committed to being an inclusive employer and encourage applications from all suitable applicants irrespective of background, circumstances, age, disability, gender identity, ethnicity, religion or belief and sexual orientation.

Please mention Journo Resources when applying to this role, it really helps us out.