Assistant Editor (BBC South West)

BBC; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 61,000; Part time

Job summary

A leading media organization is seeking a part-time Assistant Editor for its BBC South West team in Plymouth. The role focuses on delivering high-quality journalism across all platforms while managing and developing teams. Ideal candidates will demonstrate significant leadership experience, exceptional editorial judgement, and a strong understanding of the South West. This position offers competitive pay and the possibility of flexible working arrangements.

Qualifications

• Significant management and leadership experience.
• Exceptional editorial and legal judgement.
• Experience of working collaboratively across all platforms.
• An understanding of the South West and its communities.

Responsibilities

• Ensure the quality of stories meets high editorial standards.
• Manage, develop, and lead large teams.
• Deliver multi-platform journalism.
• Forge key relationships with contributors and teams.
• Work collaboratively across regions to represent diverse areas.

Skills

Management and leadership

Editorial judgement

Cross-platform journalism

Team collaboration

Job description

JOB DETAILS

Band: E

Contract type: Fixed Term Contract / Attachment – Part Time until 31 December 2026

Department: BBC Nations, BBC South West

Location: Plymouth.

Salary: £52,300 - £60,300 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

BBC South West prides itself on first class coverage of news stories from across Devon, Cornwall and the Channel Islands. Our stories are seen and heard across BBC Spotlight, our four radio stations and our digital output and social media feeds.

We have an exciting opportunity for a part‑time Assistant Editor to help us deliver creative, impactful journalism across all platforms. The Assistant Editor produces our flagship 1830 TV news programme, plans longer term content for all platforms and delivers major editorial content across all our output.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

The South West is a very diverse region, with several urban centres, rural landscapes and a large coastline. We want to recruit a leader who understands the audiences we serve. You'll get what matters to the different communities which make up the South West – from the bustling cities of Plymouth, Truro and Exeter, to towns like St Austell, Bideford and St Helier as well as those in rural isolated locations across Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor.

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

• You will ensure the quality of stories is of the highest standard and will be responsible for editorial standards across all of our platforms – ensuring our journalism adheres to BBC guidelines at all times.


• People skills are essential, and you must have significant experience of managing, developing and leading large teams.


• You will have significant experience delivering multi-platform journalism.


• Forge key relationships both externally with contributors, and internally with our teams, with a focus on staff development.


• Work collaboratively with our teams across the region as well as other BBC locations, to ensure that we are representing all the areas that we serve.


• Place huge value on diversity, both within our team and our output.

Your Skills And Experience

Our ideal candidate will be an experienced leader and journalist with a clear track record of decision‑making in daily news journalism and long‑term planning.

• You will have extensive knowledge of news and current affairs in general, and an understanding of the stories that matter to people living and working in the South West.


• You will need the ability to work unsupervised and to tight deadlines and have experience of taking editorial decisions quickly and independently.


• You will have experience of working across digital, TV, audio and social media platforms and a good understanding of how to make our content travel further.


• You will have extensive experience of leadership, management, and collaborative working across teams.

Essential Criteria

• Significant management and leadership experience.


• Exceptional editorial and legal judgement.


• Experience of working collaboratively across all platforms.


• An understanding of the South West and its communities.

If you can bring some of these skills and experiences, along with transferable strengths, we'd love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

For any general queries, please contact: [e-mail]

Redeployment

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.