Applications are now open for Social Streets C.I.C Graduate Journalism Scheme.  Following a successful internship, the successful applicant will start as the Editorial Assistant for Roman Road LDN and leave as Editor 15 months later.

This is an opportunity to join a small but ambitious media company that is pioneering a model of journalism that strengthens the local community – impact media.  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 enterprises 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 seo. You will also need to be comfortable dealing with data, optimising content, understanding hashtags, cross-linking, alt tags for images, writing metadata and building powerful URLs
• An eye for visuals. We create inspiring images that elicit pride and empathy. You’ll have an eye for Instagram worthy posts.
• 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.

Experience, salary, working arrangements and how to apply

This editorial role is offered as part of our Digital Editor Journalism Graduate Scheme, which has been designed to provide training in long-form writing, community outreach, commissioning and editing to those looking to progress to more senior editing roles. Applicants will need an MA in journalism. If you have a BA in journalism or an NCTJ you will also need to provide a portfolio of long-form writing.

For more information about salary, working arrangements and how to apply, visit Journalism Graduate Scheme.