The Times and The Sunday Times, Head of Podcasts

Podcasts are an exciting, important and growing part of The Times and Sunday Times’s multimedia offering. They need to be compelling, distinctive and produced to the highest editorial standards, to appeal to a wide range of listeners and introduce new audiences to our world-class journalism. They also provide a growing source of revenue, and are increasingly popular with subscribers and advertisers and newer more diverse audiences.

We are now looking for an experienced podcast executive to lead the strategy, development and production of our podcast portfolio. The role sits within the newsroom and must maximise our own editorial talent while working with key stakeholders to ensure they meet editorial and commercial goals.

Apply with a covering letter and your CV by November 10.

Key Accountabilities:

• Develop our podcast strategy to build on existing success, taking an ambitious, innovative approach to meet our journalistic and business objectives: positioning Times journalism and content as best in class, attracting new audiences to our world-class journalism; growing time spent with our products; increasing digital revenues.


• Oversee the creative and editorial output of our podcasts, ensuring they are made to the highest editorial standards and that they provide compelling, illuminating and entertaining content that new and existing audiences enjoy and that enhance the reputation of The Times and Sunday Times.


• Manage a small team of producers, overseeing the staffing, recruitment and management decisions needed for success.


• Work with key internal stakeholders to ensure all parts of the business are supportive of the strategy and output.


• Analyse performance metrics and audience insights to continuously refine content and expand reach.


• Ensure the podcast strategy takes advantage of the latest industry and platform developments to maximise audience numbers and commercial success.


• Ensure that the podcast portfolio takes maximum advantage of the opportunities provided by video, visualising as many as possible and using video to spur coverage on social media.


• Work with the commercial team to propose and deliver sponsorship and commercial partnerships.


• Work with the marketing and communications team to give the podcasts visibility and drive audience numbers in line with projected marketing goals to expand reach.


• Work with the Times Radio team to maximise the on-demand audio opportunities from the high-quality Times Radio output, and grow the existing Times Radio-related titles.

Key Skills and Experience:

• Proven record of devising and creating successful podcasts.


• Experience of running a portfolio of multiple podcasts.


• Experience of commercial revenue generation through podcasts.


• Excellent editorial judgement, strong audio storytelling skills and ability to work positively with high-profile talent.


• Experience of using data and market trends to create strategy.


• Experience of managing a team and budget.


• A strong collaborator, experienced in working in a matrixed environment.


• Ability to communicate at a leadership/executive level and work collaboratively with senior stakeholders.


• A strong understanding of editorial compliance and regulatory issues.

We are News UK: One of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio, Talk and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local radio stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multiplatform brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. News UK is wholly owned by News Corp.

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.

To do this, we believe our employees must represent different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy, which focuses on three main priorities - attracting talent from a wider, more representative pool, developing equity programmes to drive better representation in our leadership, and ensuring diversity and inclusivity in our workforce as well as the journalism and content we produce. We also currently have 12 employee led networks and groups that support our strategy and connect like minded employees socially.

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 careers@news.co.uk.