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Senior External Communications Manager

Your role: Reporting to the Communications Director, and working within the wider Corporate Affairs team, you will be responsible for key corporate media relations across News UK and its business units, including The Sun, The Times & The Sunday Times and our Broadcasting division (which includes TalkTV, talkSPORT, Virgin Radio, Times Radio and talkRADIO). Working collaboratively with a range of different teams - including trade marketing and an external PR agency - you’ll play an instrumental role in telling the story of business transformation for one of the UK’s leading media companies. 

You will manage media relationships with key contacts across a range of business media outlets, with a particular focus on core corporate functions including marketing, events, partnerships and business development, retail, our printing business (Newsprinters), licensing and rights, betting and gaming and our Scottish and Irish businesses. You will also develop communications across owned corporate channels including newsletters, the corporate website, LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Day to day you will:

  • Develop and deliver proactive B2B media relations for a range of stakeholders across News UK - understanding their priorities, needs and requirements and prioritising them effectively

  • Work closely with the Communications Director and Publicists to develop the B2B communications strategy for our Broadcast business, including TalkTV

  • Alongside running the press office function for those internal clients, you will also develop opportunities to surface success stories across industry events and awards

  • Work closely with the Head of Trade Marketing and our external PR agency support to ensure all B2B and commercial communications are aligned and consistent

  • Working closely with the Senior Internal Communications Manager, you will ensure aligned storytelling for your clients to other News UK colleagues

  • Deal with issues management as it arises

  • Be responsible for ensuring the corporate website is actively telling our B2B success stories 

  • Ensure that we are fully optimising our professional networks: LinkedIn and Twitter

  • Be responsible for producing and developing appropriate B2B newsletters and other impactful tools to help reach our audiences

  • Support the EVP, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications Director on wider corporate communications initiatives 

  • Effectively monitor the performance of our B2B communications and report back to your internal clients against agreed KPIs

What we’re looking for from you:

  • An established track record of five or more years delivering high profile and impactful corporate communications and B2B media relations, ideally within a national or international media brand

  • Superb attention to detail, first-class organisational and planning skills and experience managing multiple clients and campaigns

  • Excellent creativity and a passion to be a strategic business partner to your clients 

  • The gravitas to build networks quickly and effectively, influencing senior stakeholders - as well as the external media you’ll be working with

  • The ability to work in real-time, high pressured press office environments and prioritise effectively

  • Experience in issues management, award writing and briefings for industry events

  • Enthusiasm and curiosity to ask questions, improve processes and drive effective outcomes

  • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

  • A passionate interest in media, news and current affairs

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, talkRADIO and Virgin Radio, and we have market-leading local radio stations across Ireland. In 2022 we launched TalkTV, a major new TV channel available to everyone across the UK, delivering a schedule of news, current affairs, entertainment and sport. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning digital and print, audio and video, events and experiences, our 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

At News UK some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you need. We can’t promise to offer exactly what you want, but do provide multiple flexible working options.

We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes. We also have 8 employee-led networks; Cultural Diversity, News is Out, GenZ, Sustainability Champions, News for Parents, Women in Tech, News UK Christian Fellowship and we are awaiting the launch of our Women’s Steering Group.

We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. We offer private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions, discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes, and a ‘Bikes for Work’ scheme, as well as offering opportunities for physio/massage, counselling and legal support.

In addition we also offer:

  • A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;

  • 25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;

  • 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.

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing, so feel free to let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.

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