Apprentice Reporter

We are looking for a new Apprentice Reporter to join our Salisbury newsroom. Reporting for the Salisbury Journal, you will primarily be covering the city of Salisbury, its surrounding villages and part of the New Forest. The role requires someone willing to get out and about as much as possible, who can make good contacts and who wants to establish themselves at the heart of the community. It will be essential that you live on the patch and work from our Salisbury office. You will be reporting on everything from local businesses and community events to crime, human-interest stories, court cases, local politics, and much more in between. The successful candidate will be part of a team that also produces other weekly titles, the Hampshire Chronicle, Basingstoke Gazette, Romsey Advertiser and Andover Advertiser. We believe in being in the community in person as much as possible, and our reporters attend news events throughout the day, reporting for our website, social media feeds and print pages. Our office is in the city centre and is a great base to work from. This role is a rare opportunity for someone to gain their journalist qualifications around work. You will study one day a week remotely with Darlington College over 18 months, working towards your NCTJ Preliminary Diploma (Level 5). For this, you will study shorthand, media law, reporting, public affairs and court reporting, while creating a portfolio of work to showcase. This role is primarily suited at an entry-level job in journalism. We have had previous success recruiting and training reporters through this scheme and welcome the diversity it brings to our newsrooms. As always, our reporting roles involve weekend work and occasional early and late shifts on a rota basis. The best stories typically do not happen in office hours! Our reporters are expected to meet audience goals, which means learning how to find a good story, telling it across different platforms, and getting it in front of more people through social media and SEO. We also pay a quarterly monetary bonus for meeting and exceeding these targets.