Showbiz Reporter - The Sun - 9 Month FTC (Mat Cover)

Do you love celebrities, watching TV (and getting paid for it) and mingling with famous faces at showbiz parties? Are you obsessed with all things showbiz, Love Island and the soaps and can find your way from Roy's Rolls to the Rovers? Do you want to work for the UK's No1 showbiz team? Well, we're hiring!

We are The Sun: The Sun is the most popular newsbrand in the UK, reaching 38.2 million people a month across digital and print.  The Sun is at the heart of the nation’s conversation, blending serious investigations, agenda-setting campaigns, political scoops and celebrity gossip. More than a newspaper.  The Sun is an instigator, an entertainer, a cultural reference point, a finger on the pulse, a daily relationship.We have a talented, diverse team who publish the best coverage of news, sport, lifestyle and showbiz in print and digital. 

Your Role: You will deliver exclusive entertainment news to our loyal audience who rely on us for all the daily gossip. You will be working in a fast-paced and exciting environment at The Sun writing about the biggest TV shows, the world's most famous faces, interviewing showbiz stars on camera and reporting from red carpets, parties and press events.

Day to day you will:

• You will bring in great showbiz exclusives for print and online - our stories often set the showbiz agenda and we are easily the leading source of news for all showbiz, digitally and in the paper.

• Holding interviews and covering events. 

• Contributing exclusive stories on a daily basis.

• Recognising and acting upon any potential legal issues and acting in accordance with the PCC Code of Conduct.

• Consult with the Showbiz Editor in order to resolve issues with stories and keeping line managers informed on changes that arise as stories develop.

• Suggest new angles and feature ideas to news/features desks.

• Maintain a wide knowledge of showbiz and current affairs and trends through reading various titles as well as utilising other media platforms on a daily basis.   

• Encourage collaboration and support others, actively engaging with people in other teams.

What we’re looking for from you: 

We’re looking for someone with experience working as a showbiz journalist or be working on a celebrity website, be brimming with new ideas, have a bulging contacts book and thrive working in an exciting, fast paced newsroom environment.

• Unflappable under pressure and delivers work at a consistently high standard.

• Keen attention to detail and meticulous fact-checking.

• Proactive and displays a willingness to take on any task.  

• Positive can-do attitude and good team player.

• Self-starter, organised and a good problem-solver, able to eliminate obstacles through creative  and adaptive approaches.

• Can demonstrate an understanding of The Sun brand, both print and digital.

• Flexibility to work nights and weekends over a seven-day rota pattern.

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 our people are our heartbeat - they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive.  Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like.  Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.  

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 11 employee-led networks. 

We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes: 

• 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.

• Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions.

• Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes.

• ‘Bikes for Work’ scheme.

• Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling.

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

News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.