City Press has a vacancy for an experienced, digitally savvy, dynamic writer who knows their way around the local arts, entertainment and lifestyle landscape.
City Press is a respected news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed nationally on a Sunday, but it also has a popular online platform, newsletters, and social media platforms that are growing quickly and are followed closely by influencers and readers.
This position requires a journalist who has experience in reporting and working across various platforms, including print. The ideal candidate would have a large phonebook in the arts industry, have CMS management experience and social media proficiency.
The Arts and Culture Reporter role is responsible for researching, enterprising, developing, writing, editing, and delivering well written, compelling, creative and original arts and culture stories, reviews and analysis on deadline. The role will also extend to providing arts and entertainment news stories to be published on our digital platforms as well as lifestyle content. The Arts and Culture Reporter must have a plethora of arts and entertainment sources and extensive knowledge of and passion for local arts scene.
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Communication skills are key because the incumbent will be required to work across platforms and departments.This is a very varied skill set and training will be provided where needed, but the ideal candidate will need to be a self-starter who can work independently. The ideal candidate will be a passionate and creative journalist with proven experience writing arts and entertainment content.
Responsibilities will include:
- Generate and write strong, exclusive, must-read, multi-platform stories using arts, and lifestyle industry contacts
- Keep abreast of all the latest arts, entertainment and pop-culture news locally and internationally
- Be able to write hard news stories, features and opinion pieces
- Ability to aggregate arts and culture news when required
- Setting up a weekly diary and following through
- Grow the City Press online audience by writing good arts, culture and lifestyle stories
- Spot online trends and create content to leverage viral content
- Processing and publishing copy on the CMS.
- A good understanding of SEO concepts is necessary.
- Publishing social media posts on various platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
- Must be willing to attend functions and work nights and weekends
- Ensure the Press Code is adhered to
Skills and Competencies:
- At least three years’ experience in the arts and culture industry
- At least two years’ experience in a digital arts and entertainment news environment
- Proven ability to write good arts and culture features that are accurate and legally sound
- Good grasp of journalism and the news business
- The ability to co-operate with graphic artists and page layout staff to present reports in a visually attractive and understandable way
- A good instinct for news to initiate own ideas, for law and justice, for ethical conduct and good judgement
- The ability to work well in a team, under pressure, and meet strict deadlines
- An extensive contact base in the TV, music, radio, theatre, arts, and lifestyle industries
- The ability to sub edit own content
- Excellent command of written English
- A valid driver’s licence
Given the employment equity policy of Media24, preference will be given to suitable candidates from the designated groups.
