Pioneers Post is recruiting a new journalist – could it be you?

Who are you?

You’re probably just out of journalism school or have a year or two’s experience. Most likely you’ll be educated to degree level and have some kind of practical journalism training or experience – perhaps postgraduate training or fast-track NCTJ qualification.

Whatever your qualifications, you will be bright, well-informed, have a strong nose for news and the ability to create strong angles and engaging stories in a variety of media, from written to podcast and video.

You will have excellent social media skills, and understand the role and importance of different types of social media in amplifying stories, building contacts and connecting to audiences.

You will be as interested in business and finance as you are in social policy, and almost as keen on numbers and data as you are in telling great human interest stories. You will have a genuine interest in – and ideally some knowledge of – the subject matter and audiences covered by Pioneers Post on a daily basis.

You will be positive, proactive, full of ideas and willing to muck in on all sorts of tasks with the rest of our small team – from scheduling tweets and compiling our weekly newsletters, to big-name interview opportunities and trips to cover conferences abroad (subject to any pandemic restrictions!).

Skills & knowledge we are interested in:

• News and feature writing (especially for digital platforms)
• Video journalism and podcast production (eg Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Audition)
• Mobile journalism
• Social media (especially Twitter and LinkedIn, but other platforms too) and audience engagement
• Social enterprise, mission-driven business, impact investment and philanthropy
• Business and finance
• Society and the environment
• Policy and politics

(If you don’t have all of the above but still think you’d be a great candidate, we’d like to hear from you if you can make a great case for why you fit the bill. We can teach you many of the skills and knowledge you don’t have, and help train you to get better at what you are already good at.)

Who are we?

Pioneers Post is the leading global news platform for mission-driven businesses, social entrepreneurs and impact investors. You could call us a ‘niche’ publication – but we think this is the way that business and society is heading. Over the past two years, our readership has grown to reach almost 200,000 unique visitors (annually, online and in social media) from every part of the world.

As a social enterprise ourselves, we put 100% of our profits back into delivering our social goal: to support the growth and development of social enterprise and impact investing, both in the UK and across the world. We are a small team (currently six people) on a big mission, committed to producing independent and entertaining journalism to share learning, challenge the status quo and support solutions that have a positive impact on people and planet.

In addition to our reporting, we also work with partners to produce events and awards – including the UK’s annual Social Enterprise top 100 (SE100), and Women in Social Enterprise (WISE) 100. We also deliver training in solutions journalism and storytelling to other journalists and social entrepreneurs, including our recent Young Storymakers programme supporting 14 young journalists from six different countries, and training programmes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Taiwan and Greece/Cyprus.

Other stuff you might need to know

We’re based in London, UK but cover stories from around the world. The ideal candidate is likely to be living in or near London, although we are open to considering applications from people living further away. As with every other business during Covid-19, we’ve been working remotely and connecting as a team using Zoom, Slack, etc. We are considering remote working (ie no office) for the future – although we will still meet up as a team every week, and we may also have ‘hot-desk’ space in co-working offices.

The job advertised is a full-time position (5 days / 37.5 hours per week, 25 days holiday per year) but we are willing to consider part-time or flexible hours. It will initially be a 12-month contract with a view to becoming a permanent position.

We believe in hard work but also in work-life balance, flexibility, fairness and trust.

We are committed to promoting equal opportunity and diversity through policies which ensure that individuals receive treatment that is fair and consistent with their skills, abilities and potential, including in our recruitment and selection process.

We work in partnership with our own creative agency, Fable Bureau, which produces stories that matter for a range of clients.

We’re currently seeking investment to help us in our next stage of growth and we are keen to build the team further within the next year.

Next steps

If you are interested at joining to help us on the next stage of our exciting journey, send an email to jobs@pioneerspost.com, with your CV, a covering letter (or one-minute video) telling us why you want to work for us and what you offer, and three examples of your work (preferably not all in the same format – ie written, video, podcast). Deadline: 9pm, Monday 24 August, 2020. 

Please consider applying early, as we may be reviewing applications and contacting candidates before the deadline.

Candidates asked for interview will be invited to share further work and may also be given a paid commission to produce a piece of original journalistic content to a specific brief.

We're working hard to provide the most up-to-date news and resources to help social businesses and impact investors share their experiences and get through the Covid-19 crisis. But we need your support to continue. As a social enterprise ourselves, Pioneers Post relies on paid subscriptions and partnerships to sustain our purpose-led journalism – so if you think it's worth having an independent, mission-driven, specialist media platform for the impact movement, please click here to subscribe.