Senior Assistant Editor, Features

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Job Description

The Sun is the biggest news brand in the UK, publishing hundreds of stories a day and reaching over 170m unique users digitally every month. Its exclusives set the news agenda and its campaigns have changed the lives of many. Delivering news, entertainment, and sports coverage to millions of readers every day. With a rich history spanning decades, we are dedicated to providing accurate, insightful, and engaging content across print and digital platforms.

The Sun has a mass-market audience and aims to appeal to a diverse audience in the UK and beyond.

Your Role: The Senior Assistant Editor, Features will be a key player in shaping the voice and content of our flagship platforms: The Sun .co.uk and print features, Sun Club membership scheme, Fabulous Daily, the glossy Fabulous Magazine, and our Fabulous Digital offering.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a highly experienced senior manager bursting with ideas and energy to make their mark on a brand that reaches millions every day.

Based in our fast-paced London Bridge newsroom, you will be responsible for co-ordinating a schedule of content for different platforms; for managing editors, freelancers and writers and for representing the department in conference where required.

You will be responsible for generating and commissioning a constant stream of compelling, on-brand, and agenda-setting content for Sub Club, paper and online.

Your normal core working hours will be 40 hours per week within the operating hours/days as advised by your line manager. As per the News UK flexible working policy, this role is required to work from our London Bridge office for a minimum of 3 days a week. Any part-time working requests will be considered on an individual basis.

Key Responsibilities:

• Originate and commission unmissable features, interviews, and real-life stories across The Sun & Fabulous's print and digital platforms, ensuring a consistent and engaging tone of voice.
• Stepping up to lead a 360 hub when required.
• Supervising edits of more junior team members and being a confident decision-maker.
• Confident in overseeing multiple projects and platform needs simultaneously.
• Delivering stories across all platforms, particularly delivering for our video-first strategy for our 24/7 newsroom
• Manage and mentor a team of in-house reporters, nurturing their talent, guiding their ideas, and ensuring they deliver first-class copy to tight deadlines.
• Work seamlessly with senior leaders in the business.
• Respond quickly to data and come up with strong ideas which will work for Sun Club.
• Cultivate and manage a brilliant network of freelance writers, experts, and contributors to ensure our content is always fresh, authoritative, and ahead of the curve.
• Be confident presenting the stories of the day for Features Fabulous/Club when needed.
• Work closely with the Features Editors and other section heads to develop and execute the content strategy for Fabulous & Features, ensuring we are hitting key targets and serving our loyal audience.
• Seamlessly manage the flow of content from conception to publication across co.uk, the daily paper, weekly magazine, and our 24/7 digital operation, understanding the unique demands of each platform.
• Act as an ideas engine for the entire Fabulous brand, consistently pitching innovative concepts for series, packages, and major projects.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Proven experience as a senior editor on a fast-paced national newspaper website or publication.
• Ability to turn their hand to anything from investigations to celebrity stories.
• Experience in managing or mentoring junior reporters or writers.
• Digital Editing experience, including excellent headline writing skills.
• A fantastic contacts book and a proven track record of securing exclusive content.
• Exceptional organisational skills, with the ability to juggle multiple commissions and deadlines effortlessly.
• A sharp eye for a story and an intuitive understanding of The Sun, the Fabulous brand and its audience.

Life at News

Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information.

We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter most. To ensure these stories resonate with as broad an audience as possible, it is essential that our organisation reflects the diversity of the people we reach. Whether through age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social class or sexuality, we are committed to representing the rich variety of voices that make up our society. And we champion a culture where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive as we continue to innovate and drive long term sustainable growth. This is done through our Diversity Strategy.

At News UK, we take pride in our exceptional employee-led networks that bring together individuals with shared interests and create a vibrant sense of community. We believe our networks play a vital role in fostering a collaborative and supportive work culture at News UK. Groups that we support include the African & Caribbean Network, Parents and Carers, and LGBTQ+ group News Is Out, and Next Gen.

Benefits

Some of our benefits include:

• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access
• Private medical insurance including coverage for pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual yoga classes
• 'Bikes for Work' and 'Electric Car' scheme
• Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books
• Access to exclusive events and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times. Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling
• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%
• 30 days holiday, plus bank holidays and up to 4 volunteering days per year

We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to perform to their best when applying for a role. If you would like to receive any information in a different way or for us to do anything differently to support you apply for any of our roles please contact us on [email protected].