The Post is hiring a full-time reporter

We want you to join us

Good morning — the time has come!

After seeing exceptional growth in the past few months and rapidly closing in on the 1000 paying member milestone The Post is now officially looking for a new reporter to join our team in Liverpool. This will be our second full-time hire and we’re incredibly excited. 

Ever since we sent out our first newsletter less than two years go, we’ve been working with a tiny team of staff. While we’ve had a lot of help and support from our colleagues Manchester and Sheffield, we currently only have one full-time staff member in Liverpool and the time has now come when we need to expand. The new reporter will help us take on the bigger stories and more in depth investigations that we’ve been wanting to do for a while but haven’t had the resources to take on.

The Post is bringing back high-quality journalism in Merseyside. Photo: Prakasam Mathaiyan via Unsplash.

We’re only in a position to do this because of the huge support we’ve had from people in the city and its wider region. In the past we’ve worked on a shoestring budget but have still managed to publish some of the best long-form journalism in the north, like Mollie Simpson and Harry Shukman’s incredible piece on Gerard Woodhouse, the councillor prone to tall tales, or Jack Walton’s five month investigation into the Eldonian Village in Vauxhall. That we now have enough members to expand our team is a testament to how quickly we have grown and that’s all down to you. So thank you for your support — it means the world to us.

Please take a look at the advert below and if you think you fit the bill, we urge you to apply. And even if you’re not a jobbing journalist, please forward it far and wide to anyone who you think would be interested.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With gratitude,

The Post

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Staff reporter, The Post

• Location: Liverpool (the reporter must live full-time in the city region) 

• Salary: Dependent on experience (£18k-£25k range)

• Basis: Full-time role

• Start date: 3 April (later start dates will be considered)

• Application deadline: 5 March

About us

The Post started in 2021 with a mission to change journalism in Liverpool and the surrounding region by publishing the kind of stories you don’t find in the local press. Every week, we produce thoughtful, long-form articles that help our readers connect with their city, including features, investigative stories, news briefings and interviews. Our work has been picked up in the national press and our stories often reach tens of thousands of readers. That’s why well over 13,000 readers have joined our mailing list already and why we now have almost 900 paying members, who get four editions of The Post in their inboxes every week.

This role 

After building up a following from scratch over the past year or so, we are excited to reach the stage where we can expand. We’re looking to hire a second full-time reporter so that we can broaden our coverage and take on more important stories. It’s an exciting opportunity to join an expanding and pioneering news organisation in Liverpool as well as working with the reporters and editors who make up our sister publications, The Mill in Manchester and The Tribune in Sheffield.

This is a job for a journalist who believes in our mission, loves the kind of reporting we do and is passionate about applying our brand of journalism to many more stories in the years ahead. We need someone who has a natural flair for reporting — the kind of person who relishes trying to get hold of sources on the phone and enjoys chasing stories even if they seem like dead ends. You will be someone who likes getting to grips with complex issues and stories by speaking to experts and insiders and who has the ability to explain those issues clearly to readers. 

Given the salary for this role, we would expect to hire a recent graduate or someone who has a few years of experience in journalism, but we are open to people at all stages of their careers and will judge applicants on their applications and performance in interviews and writing tests rather than what they have on their CV. 

Key responsibilities

1. Producing consistently high-quality journalism for The Post that goes a level deeper than most newspaper reporting — including news reports, features, interviews and investigations. 

2. Generating dozens of fantastic and highly original story ideas every month, both for you and for our other staff and freelance writers.

3. Developing exceptional contacts within Liverpool’s political, cultural and business worlds so that we can break significant stories in the city. 

4. Helping to grow The Post by posting on social media, assisting with our marketing and fostering strong bonds with our community of members.

5. Contributing to the day-to-day running of The Post by answering emails from readers, setting up interviews for others and helping us to build our editorial schedule. 

Working pattern: This is a full-time role. You will work two days a week at a co-working space in Liverpool with our writer Jack and remotely the rest of the time. You will make fortnightly visits to The Mill’s office in Manchester. 

Attributes required

1. Reporting flair: Someone with an unusual talent for unearthing information, including huge energy when pursuing a story, a knack for getting hold of people on the phone and the ability to develop contacts over time. 

2. Clear writing: Someone who can write with clarity and distil complex issues for readers — you don’t need to have extensive experience writing long features but you need to be able to engage readers and write precisely.

3. Independence: Someone capable of working independently without lots of supervision from editors — that means being exceptionally organised, very communicative with colleagues and self-motivated when working on stories. 

4. Growth mindset: Someone with an entrepreneurial spirit who is motivated by The Post’s growth as well as our journalism and wants to be a part of building a new media organisation, including the unglamorous stuff.

5. Post values: Someone who is committed to our key editorial values: accuracy, nuance, thoughtfulness, fairness to sources and giving readers the context they need to understand what is going on. 

How to apply

To apply for this role, email mollie@livpost.co.uk by Sunday 5 March at the latest (earlier applications are appreciated). We don’t expect every applicant to be a longtime reader of The Post, but please make sure you are very familiar with our work before you apply. Please include the following things in your application (all within the body of the email, not as attachments).

• Four or five paragraphs introducing who you are and why you would be a good fit for this role.

• Three links to stories you have written, each with one or two sentences explaining how they demonstrate the attributes listed above. 

• Three ideas you have for stories you would like to work on if you joined The Post.

• Any other relevant details, for example how long your notice period is. 

Next steps: You will hear back from us within a fortnight of your application. If we are interested in taking things further, we will send you a short writing test, and the next stage after that will be a series of two or three interviews in March. The role will start on Monday, 3 April, although we are open to a slightly later or earlier start date.

Applications have now closed. If you’d like to be our next intern or write for The Post on a freelance basis, please click here.