Press Officer; Cover Job London area,Greater London England UK,Creative Arts/Media

Press Officer About the Spokesperson Network

The Spokesperson Network trains and supports people to speak on television and radio. We are substantially boosting the number of progressive, diverse voices in this space to challenge opposition narratives and boost coverage of underrepresented issues.

The programme works by training, coaching and providing PR booking support for spokespeople from civil society working on social, environmental and economic issues. So far we've had over 11,000 high-profile media bookings including Question Time, Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, LBC, Channel 4 News, BBC 5 Live, Today, Sky News and ITV News plus many more.

Purpose of the role

The Press Officer is central to our flagship Spokesperson Network programmes, placing people in broadcast media on a regular basis, developing and maintaining media contacts and meeting the needs of participants on the Spokesperson Network.

Your main day-to-day role will be identifying opportunities for members of our Spokesperson Network, and then coordinating between them and producers to secure TV and radio opportunities for them. You will build relationships with journalists - and increasingly seek our print and digital opportunities too.

Most days will involve spotting opportunities in the news early in the day that would be relevant for the spokespeople we have on our books, checking in with the various spokes to see who is available, formatting pitches to put out on our media list and then fixing up the details when media bids come in to ensure that bookings happens smoothly and effectively.

Requests for the members of the Spokesperson Network happen regularly outside of office hours and during the weekend. Part of this role will involve sharing responsibility to be available to respond to these bookings and fix them up when they happen. You will be recompensed for this with TOIL.

This project is part of a wider Communications Hub in which you'll play an active role helping to develop the overall strategy and direction of the project.

What you will be doing

Here are the key responsibilities of this role:

Identify relevant stories in the news and subsequently pitch and book spokespeople into broadcast media (television and radio) and respond to media requests.
Train spokespeople to speak in the media and provide media skills training for campaigners and other organisations.
Build new media relationships to widen the range of producers working with the Spokesperson Network
Support spokespeople, taking into consideration the ways in which broadcast media work interacts with people's identities and lived experience.
Work with others in the Comms Team on the development and implementation of effective messaging.
Identifying clippable content, creating clips.
Play an active role in the wider Comms Hub, attending and feeding into key messaging and narrative development.
Play an active part in the whole NEON team, contributing to organisation-wide plans

Who you are:

Experience in journalism, communications or media relations
Experience of building and maintaining relationships with journalists
Proven understanding of anti-oppression work and commitment to tackling all institutional forms of oppression, bigotry and exclusion
Experience working in the economic and social justice campaigning community in any kind of capacity
Excellent writing and editing skills, including an eye for detail
Excellent interpersonal skills and communicating appropriately with different stakeholders
The ability to meet tight deadlines and manage multiple priorities
Ability to work well under pressure, at a fast pace, meet the demands of a dynamic organisation and accommodate changing circumstances
Ability to work well in a team and also independently.
An affinity with NEON's aims and objectives and organisational values of solidarity, generosity and respect

Preferred/Optional

Experience of working with an organisation with a substantial media profile
Experience of coordinating media responses in hostile situations
Experience in working in or with the range of groups that are in the NEON network

Values and behaviours

Personal commitment to NEON's purpose of building the strength of movements for social, economic and environmental justice
Commitment to eradicating oppression and building connections with marginalised groups
Ability to reflect and learn, including sharing failures and uncertainties. Openly taking feedback from the team and members of the community on your behaviours and work
Commitment to learning…