We’re looking for a creative, collaborative and dynamic new colleague to produce video, audio and other social content.

About The Role

Your focus will be promoting the Cable’s journalism to our existing and potential audience and maintaining our public-facing communications. You’ll be keen not only to create polished, engaging short-form content of your own, but also to help us grow the impact of our long form, in-depth journalism.

You’ll collaborate with teammates on our media and communications strategies, and be responsible for reaching and engaging a wider and more diverse audience within the city. You’ll do this via both compelling standalone social posts and content, and by repackaging our existing journalism into short form, shareable material.

This role would suit a social-native creative or journalist who’s not only fluent in a number of platforms and their workflows, but is eager to learn and innovate as trends develop and your style progresses. You’ll also be committed to balancing our engagement needs with editorial integrity, using common sense and collaboration with the team to make strong creative decisions, rather than jumping on a trend bandwagon.

Aside from our main roles, every Cable team member is part of the staff cooperative. We all have a shared stake in the work we do and how we work together, so all team members contribute to key decisions and the overall direction of the Cable, including our priorities, strategy and general operations.

Key Information

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 4 days per week

Salary: £26,084 pro rata (Note: The Cable has an equitable pay structure where the pay differential between the lowest and highest paid is no more than 20%. This is band 2 out of 5 – 5% above base. See below for more info.)

Location: Bristol Cable office: The Station, Silver Street, BS1 2AG (with work from home flexibility, but you will need to be able to attend the office several days a week)

Applications closing date: Monday 7th August at 10am

Any questions? If you have any questions please email applications@thebristolcable.org.

We particularly encourage applications from women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people from working class backgrounds.

Role Responsibilities

• Developing the Cable’s online presence and multimedia output to enhance audience engagement

1. Working closely with the media team to develop content strategies
2. Developing our short form content via TikTok/YouTube Shorts
3. Production of podcasts and video alongside the media team and freelancers
4. Creating promotional graphics for e.g. articles and events
5. Responding quickly and effectively to high-impact news moments
6. Creating content about the Cable itself to promote the organisation to potential members and industry

• Managing content and copy across the Cable’s existing social feeds (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook)and our editorial newsletter (Mailchimp)

1. Scheduling editorial socials in Sprout, our content management system
2. Copywriting and content packaging to enhance social engagement with the Cable, its journalism, its editorial campaigns and callouts
3. Assisting in the production of our weekly editorial newsletter in Mailchimp

• Digital marketing

1. Growing, engaging and retaining existing Cable membership, and attracting new audiences, through content, campaigns and advertising
2. Utilising available monetisation programmes across platforms, and developing plans for growing them
3. Goal setting and evaluation, using analytics, metrics and feedback

Person Specification

We would like you to have at least some skills, experience or aptitude that demonstrate how you meet each of the essential criteria below, and where possible, the desirable criteria as well. Please refer closely to this person specification in your application.

We welcome examples drawn from your personal or voluntary experience, as well as paid employment.

Essential

Experience

• 2+ years experience creating high-quality social video and written content for more than one platform (personal or professional)
• 1+ years experience managing social media channels, comfort with digital tools and eager to learn and improve

Skills

• Understanding of a number of digital platforms and their workflows
• Skill in creating different types and tones of content (e.g. from playful shorts, to a summary of a hard-hitting investigation)
• Responsive and able to work quickly, without compromising on quality.
• Confidence and proactivity in reaching out to individuals and groups, being a recognisable and approachable representative of the Cable, in front of, as well as behind, the camera.

Knowledge & Motivation

• You are passionate about the Cable’s mission to centre communities in local media, and transform our city through in-depth, investigative local journalism.
• You are passionate about helping to create an inclusive, anti-oppressive organisation and consider accessibility in the ways you work, such as in communication design.
• You would feel comfortable in an environment without traditional management and hierarchy, which relies on initiative, willingness to think strategically about your own work (with support from colleagues), and an enthusiasm to develop your skills around interpersonal communication, meeting facilitation and collaboration.

Desirable

• Experience in journalism or in a media organisation
• Experience working in a small mission-driven organisation or team
• Experience leading campaigns with calls to action, in particular ones focused on people contributing money for a cause
• Good news judgement e.g. ability to insightfully draw out highlights from articles for social media or newsletters
• Knowledge of communities and networks in Bristol
• Ability to craft messaging that achieves specific goals, with a good sense of what resonates with different audiences
• Familiarity with Mailchimp, Sprout, or similar social media content management tools
• Familiarity with basic social platform analytics
• Experience of using monetisation programmes on one or more content platforms

What We Offer

• A permanent position in our staff team, subject to a 6-month probationary period and funding.
• A salary of £26,084 pro rata, with opportunities for increases.
• 36 days annual leave pro rata, including bank holidays, plus up to 5 days extra paid time off at Christmas, and up to 15 days unpaid holiday allowance, both pro rata.
• A pension scheme with a 3% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution.
• Flexible working based on team hours, and a period policy, to help you work when works best for you.
• Monthly socials
• A personal training, professional development and wellbeing allowance to help support you.
• A key role in a values-driven and purposeful team, with huge freedom to shape your work, evolve your role, and contribute to our strategy.
• Training in sociocracy
• Cycle to work scheme

About The Cable

The Bristol Cable is a community-owned media cooperative, owned and supported by thousands of people across the city. We’re recognised internationally as a pioneer in the movement for a new media, our mission is to redefine local journalism as a community asset, which is accountable to our readers. Together, we hold power to account through groundbreaking investigations, campaigning for change, and amplifying marginalised voices.

We produce award-winning local journalism, in print and online, made free to access for all by members. We don’t chase breaking news, but instead dig deeper into key issues with original angles, including the local impacts of national and international issues.

Co-operative working 

The Cable is a co-operative, and we collectively share responsibility for managing the organisation, following the principles of Sociocracy. So, as well as the responsibilities listed above, being part of the Cable team also involves participation in helping to run the co-op.

The above responsibility is shared across the team, but the People and Wellbeing Lead is ultimately responsible for ensuring that a culture of compassion, professionalism and momentum is maintained within this co-operative culture.

Equitable pay structure

As a grassroots organisation with a big mission and brilliant people working here, salaries in the Cable are lower than we would like to pay our colleagues. We’ve come a long way since being founded by dedicated volunteers eight years ago, and are continually working to grow our income and raise salaries as we do that.

In 2021, the Cable team developed a new pay structure which aims to be transparent, objective, and equitable in how we decide salaries. The system involves an annual self-allocation to agreed criteria such as levels of responsibility, with peer support and team review. We have five salary bands staff can be allocated to, depending on the number of criteria they meet, with £24,831 being the lowest salary, and £29,797 the highest (a 20% differential).

New roles are allocated a banding based on our expectation for the criteria they meet, with the possibility to go up a band after the 6-month probation period, depending on whether more criteria are expected to be met.

As a member of the Cable team, you will be able to be involved in helping shape our pay structure as we continue to evolve it, and we aim to continue to raise staff salaries as we grow our income.

Anti-oppression

We recognise that our society contains many overlapping systems of oppression and that these injustices may be reproduced in how we work. We are learning more about our part in these systems and thinking strategically about how to change working practices, policies and systems so that we can challenge these unjust systems, as well as supporting colleagues who face particular oppressions in their daily lives.

This is a work in progress, and happening at individual and collective level. We expect all staff to educate ourselves on oppressions that we may not have experienced directly and to contribute to our work to make our organisational structures, practices and culture more inclusive and liberatory.

How To Apply

Apply by using the link below, applications close on Monday 7th August at 10am.

We particularly encourage applications from women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people from working class backgrounds.