A great opportunity has arisen for a temporary Senior Media Officer for an international development charity in order to provide expert media handling advice and to carry out media work, including protection and promotion of the charity reputation and issues in the media, both in the UK and internationally. This will be a temporary 3-4 months contract based in London.

Key Responsibilities will include:

To drive, develop and implement media strategies to achieve organisational communications objectives, including fundraising appeals, celebrity support, advocacy campaigns and policy work and key corporate partnerships both proactively and reactively as appropriate
To advise the charity staff up to the Chief Executive (in consultation with the relevant manager or Global Head of Media) on communicating through the media, whether proactively or reactively and on the risks and opportunities of external messaging.
To build and maintain excellent relationships with relevant journalists, broadcasters and commentators in the local, UK and international media and widen interest in the charity s work.
To help drive charity s online media work and engage with bloggers, online journalists and social media influencers
To evaluate and report back on key campaigns to the team and rest of the organisation when required
To write copy as required for print and web outlets, in-house or external.
To brief journalists on and off the record, arrange radio and TV interviews where necessary and brief staff in preparation.
To monitor and evaluate media coverage and make recommendations to the managers.
Join the 24/7 on-call rota and be prepared for some work outside normal office hours, such as when preparing for major news stories and international conferences.
Undertake any other responsibilities, tasks or activities as reasonably required, including deputising for the manager.



In order to apply you should have the following skills and experience:

Excellent command of written English to produce written media work of high quality.
Proven experience of working in an in-house press office / PR agency or as a journalist.
Proven experience of liaising with journalists of all levels
Proven ability to devise and implement proactive campaigns with examples or equivalent high profile work as a journalist.
Understanding of how the media can be used as an influencing tool whether to encourage fundraising and engagement or influence decision makers.
Proven ability to think outside the box and so generate a wide range of media coverage
Excellent understanding and working knowledge of online and social media
Ability to handle multiple projects and a variety of work simultaneously
Excellent verbal communication skills. Ability to forge effective working relationships within the team and with colleagues from across the organisation.
Proven ability to take initiative, prioritise workload and work under pressure.
Commitment to personal learning, development and improvement in pursuit of own objectives and those of the team and organisation.