1 year editorial cadetship

The Conversation AU (https://theconversation.com)

Melbourne or Canberra, Australia Full Time

Compensation: $68,000 annually plus 12% superannuation

Role title: Cadet/Assistant Editor

Reports to: Section Editor, Education or Social Media

Other Key Relationships: Editor, COS, Deputy COS

Hours: Full time

About The Conversation

With headquarters in Melbourne, The Conversation Australia and New Zealand is the world's leading digital publisher of research-based news and analysis. Our model is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists. We produce easy-to-read articles based on proven expertise. It’s our mission to spread knowledge and inform decisions.

The Role

The cadetship is a 12-month position for an early career or graduate journalist. We are looking for two candidates, one who would report to the Education Editor (based in Canberra) and one who would report to the head of Social Media (in Melbourne). Experience in education reporting or social media content creation is not necessary, but the successful candidates will be passionate about developing ideas in one of these fields. The Assistant Editor will predominantly commission, edit and publish text-based articles on education, while the Deputy Social Media Producer will produce content for social media.

The cadets will need to be voracious readers who have a keen interest in journalism, with either a journalism degree or some demonstrated experience in the field. The Conversation is a trusted journalism brand. The successful applicants need to protect its hard-won credibility. They must be thoughtful, calm, methodical, rigorous and possess a deep commitment to professional impartiality and high ethical standards.

Key responsibilities include:

Assistant Editor Education:

Responsibility 1 – Develop story ideas and commission and edit articles based on

developments, trends, research and breaking news in early childhood, schools and higher education, reporting to the Education Editor

Responsibility 2 - Respond to pitches from education academics

Responsibility 3 - Represent The Conversation at events and promote the work of The Conversation to potential academic authors.

Assistant Social Media Producer:

Responsibility 1 – Identify stories we’ve published that will resonate on social media platforms, come up with creative ways to tell those stories and then monitor their performance. (Platforms may include Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, BlueSky, LinkedIn and others and storytelling may include video, static or text)

Responsibility 2 –Audience engagement: monitor social media channels for comments, messages and mentions and moderate or respond promptly and thoughtfully. Foster meaningful conversations and interactions with our audience, encouraging community engagement and feedback story ideas to the rest of the team.

Responsibility 3 - Generate and execute creative ideas for visual storytelling on site (ie lead images, embedding elements in stories, graphics etc).

Responsibility 4 - Other social media tasks as required, for example liaising with external social media platform teams.

Experience and skills

Essential experience

Journalism experience - either industry or study

Essential qualities

• Highly developed written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to develop interesting and relatable story ideas
• An interest in education or social media, and the ability to keep up with the latest developments in these areas
• Creative thinker and visual storyteller
• Diplomacy and the ability to create and manage positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Courteous, kind and respectful
• Highly developed research and analytical skills
• Polished presentation
• Care and attention to detail
• Friendly and collegiate, in line with our newsroom culture.

Application Process:

Applications should be sent to [email protected] by COB on Wednesday the 11th of March.

Please include a copy of your CV and answers of no more than 200 words to each of these questions (no cover letter required).

1. Tell us about your study, and any previous work experience or professional/academic accomplishments.
2. Why are you applying for this role and why would you be a good fit for it?
3. Tell us a little about you, your background and life experience, and the factors that make you who you are. We particularly value all kinds of diversity and would like to hear anything about you or your background that would enable you to bring something unique to the role and our team.
4. Do you have the right to work in Australia?

Please make sure all material that you submit is uploaded together in one document/attachment.