Sound Designer (12 Month FTC)

Job Description

The Times and The Sunday Times represent a combined 400 years of covering news and providing comment and analysis on the UK and the world. We are authoritative, credible, responsible, trusted and a part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

Your role: As a Sound Designer you’ll be responsible for creating the sound that underpins our podcast storytelling, working with the same scope, ambition and rigorous standards as the other journalism produced by The Times and The Sunday Times. Working across our slate of weekly, daily and standalone series, one of your key responsibilities will be mixing our flagship daily news show, The Story, but you will also work on other output, including our award-winning investigative podcasts.

The role will involve cooperating with producers, reporters and other areas of the business as required. You’ll be part of a small, supportive and successful team working sometimes unpredictable hours and under tight deadlines to meet the demands of that day’s production. Given your role in the production process, you should expect your working hours to be typically 1-9pm (UK). You’ll have proven editorial judgement, deep experience of audio sound design and multi-platform production, be a team player and have a desire to create innovative podcast content that grabs its audience’s attention by examining major stories in a new light.

Day to day you will:

Audience

• Work with the Executive, Senior and other Producers to deliver the highest quality audio output, as well as liaising with other teams including video as required
• Identify opportunities to take our podcast output to the next level across different platforms, formats, and audiences, aiming to surprise our existing audience and appeal to new audiences
• Collaborate with other editorial, platform and marketing teams as required to align audience goals with broader brand objectives

Content

• Work creatively to produce podcast content for daily, weekly and serialized publication
• Maintain the highest editorial and production standards, including liaison with our legal and compliance teams where necessary
• Liaise with those teams working elsewhere within the papers and on other of our podcasts
• Be part of consequential and complex editorial decision-making processes, often under pressure of a deadline and escalating these when necessary

Performance

• Be part of our team’s continued evolution, including working on new formats, new ways of telling stories, bonus and afternoon editions and field production / reporting
• Be committed to realising the best quality podcast content not just nationally but internationally
• Work independently to manage your own output and generate a flow of fresh ideas for both new subjects and the treatment of subjects as required
• Potentially work unsociable hours, including weekends

What we’re looking for from you:

• Experience of daily news, investigative and/or current affairs production, ideally within a newspaper or media organisation
• Understanding of podcast production and storytelling, including narrative and non-narrative models
• Deep experience of podcast or audio production, including the use of Descript, Adobe Audition and ideally Adobe Premiere
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and translate it into new approaches to content making
• Ability to well under pressure and constantly adapt in a changing work environment and/or demands of that day’s story
• Proven experience of working to strict editorial standards and legal requirements within a media environment

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 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 in our workforce as well as the journalism and content we produce. We also currently have 13 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, as well as an extra anniversary day off
• Up to 3 paid volunteering days per year to support causes you care about

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

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