Director of Media

Right To Life UK is a charitable organisation focused on life issues in the UK. We work to advance the recognition and preservation of human dignity, particularly through consistent protection for the right to life of every human being from conception to natural death.

We are seeking a capable, self-motivated and experienced individual to become our Director of Media to take the lead on developing the ongoing media strategy for the organisation and lead on implementation and day-to-date execution of this strategy.

The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to hit the ground running to deliver the momentum to grow the organisation’s media strategy and influence.

Key responsibilities:

As Director of Media you will:

● Drive an ambitious, innovative media strategy, focussed on life issues. This includes the ongoing development, implementation and day-to-day execution of the organisation’s media strategy.

● Managing all proactive and reactive media relations. This includes proactively networking and building relationships with press and media to further the goals of the organisation and the media goals.

● Providing line management for our Media Officer.

● To be proactive in the placing of stories with appropriate journalists, editors and producers. This includes press, radio, TV, documentaries, magazines and online platforms with a specific focus on placing stories in the mainstream media.

● To be directly writing and overseeing the writing of regular op-ed pieces for spokespeople, sector experts and MPs/peers.

● To monitor what is happening in the media to keep the organisation, partner organisations and MPs/peers informed of developing debates and the public mood.

● To field and respond to enquiries from national and local media.

● To keep in close contact with and work with other organisations in the life issues field.

● Working with the wider team to educate the public through the organisation’s public facing campaigns by producing resources, writing content for digital assets (website, social media, video transcripts etc) and drafting media briefings/press releases/opinion pieces for the media components of campaigns.

● Any other related tasks within the organisation as may be necessary.

Key skills and abilities

Knowledge and experience:

● Good honours degree

● Existing relationships with key journalists, producers etc in the mainstream media and a track-record of utilising these relationships to consistently place media with major media outlets.

● For reference, our target titles are:

○ Major national print/online: Times, Telegraph, Mail, Guardian, Evening Standard, Metro, Independent, Financial Times, The Herald, Scotsman, Belfast Telegraph, NewsLetter, Irish News, Sun, Mirror, Express, Huffington Post, PA,

○ Magazine: Spectator, New Statesman, Economist, Private Eye

○ Broadcast TV: BBC, ITV, Sky News, Channel 4

○ Broadcast radio: BBC, LBC, talkRADIO

○ Political: Conservative Home, Labour List, Left Foot Forward, Guido Fawkes

● Good knowledge of life issues and connected areas.

● A sound understanding of and commitment to the mission of the organisation.

A successful candidate will:

● Be able to demonstrate ability to consistently place pieces in high profile media outlets by providing a detailed record of previous achievements on this front.

● Display evidence of having designed and implemented media projects to complement and enhance the core mission of an organisation.

● Have advanced written skills with the ability to write proposals, briefings, speeches, digital and campaign content, press releases etc.

● Understand and engage with the latest life-issues-related research, relevant legislation and the consultation documents.

● Exhibit a rigorous approach which lends itself to methodical and accurate work produced in a timely manner to meet deadlines.

● Have strong personal and time-management skills.

● Be an excellent written and oral communicator.

● Be able to relate to people from all cultures, ethnicities and value-systems.

● Be able to hold information in confidence and build trust with those around you.

● Be positive and enthusiastic.

● Have the ability to persuade, motivate and inspire others to action.

● Be able to think strategically and innovatively.

● Be able to build and maintain external relationships.

Personal attributes:

● Have an interest in working for a life issues related organisation and a strong desire to play a part in influencing law and culture on these issues.

● Preferably able to demonstrate a firm commitment to life-issues-related causes through volunteer involvement with life-issues-related projects in the past.

● Inspired by the work of Right To Life UK and in full agreement with the organisation’s mission and campaigning positions.

● When deadlines demand, flexibility and willingness to work overtime.

● When necessary, capable of working under some pressure.

● Committed to both team and unsupervised working.

● Able to avoid party political and denominational bias in your role.

● When necessary, willingness to help with tasks outside regular duties.

● An ability to bring an entrepreneurial zeal to your role and to get excited about the outcomes that you can achieve through your involvement with the organisation.

● High standards of personal discipline, reliability, honesty and integrity.

To apply for this position please send a covering letter and your CV to careers@righttolife.org.uk