Assistant Editor, The Global Story Podcast

Package Information

Job Reference: 21354

Band: E

Salary: £70,000 - 80,000 + London Weighting depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Contract type: Fixed Term Contract / Attachment (12 months)

Location: London Broadcasting House, W1A

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.

Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.

Benefits - We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym. You can find out more about working at the BBC by selecting this link to our candidate pack.

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the [email protected] . For any general queries, please contact: [email protected].

Job Introduction

We’re recruiting an Assistant Editor to join BBC Long Form Audio, working on The Global Story podcast.

The daily pod is being relaunched this spring with a new editorial vision, and a greater emphasis on narrative storytelling. The BBC is investing in the Global Story to become the equivalent of the “front page” of the BBC in North America. The show will provide a deep dive on one big international story every day, giving the audience a deeper understanding of the context and stories that lie behind major global events. In a moment of increasing turmoil worldwide, this show will attempt to keep listeners up to date on how the key issues of our time are playing out on the global stage.

Long Form Audio is the BBC’s home of in-depth story-telling, producing some of the most listened to audio in the world. We produce content for multiple BBC radio networks, including The Briefing Room, Profile, More or Less, Crossing Continents, From Our Own Correspondent and AntiSocial for BBC Radio 4, and Assignment, Witness History, The Inquiry, The Climate Question and People Fixing the World for the BBC World Service. We also produce acclaimed investigative podcasts such as I am Not a Monster, The Coming Storm, World of Secrets and The Lazarus Heist, as well as topical titles such as Newscast, The Global Story, Access All, Americast, Ukrainecast and more.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of the founding team this highly ambitious podcast, which will be a core part of the BBC’s offering to the US market.

The successful candidate will be part of the Long Form Audio team, and may also have the opportunity to work across the department’s other strands and projects.

Main Responsibilities

• To play a leading role, with the Senior News Editor and key stakeholders, in relaunching the podcast, shaping the vision, and delivering a product that meets the gap in the US market.
• Communicating the new vision to the team, and leading them to deliver it on a day to day basis.
• Creative ability to generate and develop innovative ideas for podcast output.
• Work closely with the presenter, SJ output editor and J to shape the narrative storytelling in each episode.
• To lead on the day to day management of the team, including recruitment, appraisals and training. To assess individuals’ skills and to use these to the best advantage of the output.
• Demonstrate a very good understanding of the international news pod audience.
• Ability to motivate and develop editorial staff to make innovative and imaginative contributions to programmes.
• Ability to make major decisions and communicate these with authority and under pressure.
• Identify, motivate and guide contributors and podcast hosts. Talent Management is a critical part of this role.
• Ensure the podcast makes maximum impact across BBC output, digital, and social channels.
• Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations.
  
  

Are you the right candidate?

We’re looking for a creative team leader who shows bags of initiative and passionately cares about making the best output. You’ll have a strong background in narrative audio storytelling, and will understand how to use narrative production techniques to tell stories in the most engaging way possible, interweaving interviews, script, audio from on the ground, archive, sound and music.

You’ll have a strong knowledge of international news and have your finger on the zeitgeist. You’ll be bursting with ideas and thoughts on how to make the podcast distinctive from daily news programmes by bringing the stories behind the headlines. You’ll have a keen understanding of the audio landscape and how to carve out a distinctive identity for TGS within it. And you’ll be a strong, visionary leader who can drive change and communicate the vision effectively to the team and other key stakeholders.

• The successful candidate will have strong editorial judgement and experience editing high impact audio with fast turnarounds and tight deadlines.
• You will have a strong understanding of narrative audio techniques, with a track record of delivering narrative audio of the highest quality. You’ll be able to lead the podcast’s storytelling, working closely with Senior Journalists and Journalist producers to craft individual episodes in a narrative style.
• You will have extensive knowledge of the audio market, both inside and outside the BBC and ideas on how to make TGS cut through.
• You will have ideas on how to build our audience in North America.
• You will have experience of managing and developing presenters.
• Excellent team leadership skills and a drive to create a dynamic, supportive and creative work culture.
• You will have a track record in generating, producing and commissioning journalism that creates widespread impact including online, other broadcast outlets, digital and social media.
• Extensive knowledge of international news and a track record in spotting trends and stories behind the headlines.
• You can demonstrate a proven commitment to diversity in all its forms both on and off air.
• You will have a track record in dealing with tricky editorial and legal problems arising from stories, and understand the BBC’s editorial guidelines around impartiality, accuracy and fairness.
  
  

About The BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here .

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here .