News reporter

Daily newspaper the Oxford Mail is looking for a news reporter to join our talented team.

We are seeking an ambitious, digitally skilled and versatile journalist to unearth the best breaking news, features, leisure and trending stories on an incredibly lively patch.

The right candidate will be delivering the sort of fast, agile, and dynamic coverage that our readers expect and deserve. 

Key responsibilities

You will be passionate about digital storytelling, with a desire to come up with new and innovative ways of telling those stories using a vast array of different skills, tools, and platforms.

A big part of the job will also be immersing yourself in social media to help you tell your stories, develop relationships in your area and discover what it is that gets your community talking. 

We want to tell the stories our communities care about – everything from what is happening on the roads to the latest on crime on our streets and delivering the inside story of the people and places that make your towns and cities tick.

Ideally, you will be an outstanding trainee with gold standard NCTJ preliminary qualifications and 100wpm or a fully qualified senior reporter.

If you have a journalism degree that is not NCTJ-accredited we will provide the relevant additional training for you to become a fully NCTJ qualified journalist.

A driving licence is essential, as is access to a car. We work on a rota basis with some early and late shifts as well as some weekend working.

Skills, knowledge and expertise

• Excellent knowledge of relevant media law 
• A versatile, fresh and energetic writing style 
• Exceptional attention to detail 
• The ability to write – and think – quickly under pressure 
• An adaptable style to produce everything from live blogs and listicles to long reads and features 
• Skills with shooting and editing video as well as online tools and apps for producing images and audio 
• Bags of ideas for how stories can be presented in the best possible way for our audiences 
• Knowledge of SEO and its importance to digital journalism 
• Excellent social media skills and the ability to spot stories and trending topics 
• Great people skills and the ability to get on with a wide range of people in the community 
• A high level of organisation and the ability to manage your diary 
• Collaborative skills to pool ideas with the wider digital reporting team and take on board suggestion

About Newsquest Media Group

We are a media company with a difference. We are committed to bringing a voice to your region by investing in a passionate team of journalists who proudly serve their communities by sharing authoritative news that readers trust. Our sales teams provide local businesses with highly responsive digital advertising and marketing solutions.

We are one of the largest regional news publishers in the UK and have a portfolio of more than 250+ local news brands and magazines online and in print. With an online audience of 41 million users a month and 7 million readers a week in print, our content is read by a substantial proportion of the UK population.

In addition to our local news brands, we own several digital pure play and specialist media businesses such as s1jobs and s1homes, Exchange & Mart, and Newsquest Specialist Media. We also own LOCALiQ, an award-winning digital marketing agency that specialises in driving more leads, increasing online growth and generating return on marketing investment on behalf of thousands of UK SMBs