Times Radio has shaken up the broadcasting firmament since launching in June 2020, and our recent growth in listeners as measured by Rajar demonstrates the impact we have made. As a live news radio station, we have built up a strong reputation for providing well-informed, thoughtful and intelligent news and discussion, covering the key stories of the day. We have combined the famous journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with the radio experience of News Broadcasting to create a station that already has over 550,000 weekly listeners. We have a world-class line-up of presenters talking to excellent guests, who value conversation over confrontation.
Your role: You will lead every aspect of the show and its team, giving the programme creative and journalistic direction, ensuring it sets the agenda and makes news, as well as studio producing it on a regular basis.
Day to day you will:
Lead the team and work with both presenters to ensure that each day’s programme is must-listen, with a strong line-up of guests and stories covered in the best way possible
Oversee the ideas generation process and ensure there is a steady stream of big-name, news-making guests and imaginative and new topical features
Responsible for improving and evolving the show so that it’s an informative, warm and entertaining listen for our audience
Work to super-size the best ideas to give them as much visibility and external impact as possible, spreading the word about the show and growing its audience
Champion video content at Times Radio and prioritise getting all our guests in vision so our best interviews can be shared as widely as possible on all revenue-generating digital platforms
Output the programme from the control room on a regular basis
Oversee planning for Times Radio Breakfast and work on special programmes and outside broadcasts in the UK and abroad
Manage team members, giving feedback and developing their skills over time
Act up as Editor when required across the station and take on additional editorial responsibilities across our seven-day-a-week operation.
What we’re looking for from you:
An experienced journalist with a deep understanding of UK and foreign news stories, in particular politics
A strong understanding of what makes great, must-listen radio
An instinct for how to use social and video channels to spread the word further about the show
Impressive leadership ability that will inspire and motivate a small yet talented team
A personable approach and collaborative mindset (Times Radio is at its best when teams work together)
Experience of working with and getting the best from presenters
Trusted understanding of relevant compliance and legal issues
The flexibility to work anywhere on the station if required in the future.
What's in it for you?
This is a great chance for the right person to run the most listened-to programme on a talked-about radio station, whose listeners include some of the most influential people in British life. You’ll work with talented, motivated people to shape the national conversation each morning. Thanks to the freshness and agility of Times Radio, you’ll have the ability to shape and influence the output directly on a daily basis. This rewarding role is fast-changing, up-to-the-minute and never dull.
News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.
Life at News: At News UK our people are our heartbeat - they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive. Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like. Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.
We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes. We also have 11 employee-led networks.
We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes:
A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;
25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions
Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes
‘Bikes for Work’ scheme
Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling.
We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.
News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non-visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.