The Tab is hiring a Staff Writer (News)

The Tab is looking for an ambitious Staff Writer to work at its HQ, with a special focus on news.

The Tab is a news site covering student and youth culture, with seven million readers a month. We cover everything from Netflix to politics, as well as dominating uni campuses all over the UK. The Tab is part of Digitalbox Plc – the growing media company behind Entertainment Daily!, The Poke and The Daily Mash. At The Tab we put young people in charge; the average age is 25 and many staff go on to run their own team within three years.

You’ll join a team of 11 journalists in our HQ, writing several stories a day. In this role, you will write stories across many sections including entertainment and trends. This role has a special focus on news, being responsible for regular coverage of student and youth news. This includes: finding scoops, writing national data stories on university stats, leading the reporting on student issues like the ongoing strikes, and sending regular FOIs to uncover new cross-university stories.

The types of stories you’ll be writing:

• There were more than 1 million visits to ChatGPT website at universities in last exam season
• Cardiff lecturer posts video calling students ‘idiots’ for wanting safety net
• 18,000 of you took part, these are the UK unis that are most hooked on Elf Bars
• At least one university student has died every week since the start of term
• These are the UK unis the winter Love Island 2023 cast would go to, based on pure vibes
  
• We spoke to the boys in THIS picture and they’ve had enough of your jokes
• Derailed: TikTok train star Francis Bourgeois’ real name is… Luke
  
• ‘Bullying was day-to-day’: Inside Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett’s company Social Chain
  
• Cambridge student in white tie burns cash in front of homeless person
  
• Emily took her own life months into university. Then the screenshots and photos of her abuse came out
• Drake to Ariana Grande: How TikTokkers are making those viral AI cover songs
• Overworked and underpaid: Why grads are ditching jobs at the Big Four

Key responsibilities: 

• Writing at least three stories a day for The Tab’s national site, focusing on news but also writing fun features across entertainment, trends and guides
• Chasing tips and landing scoops that get picked up in the national papers
• Consistently sending original FOIs, running student surveys, and writing up data stories from a range of sources like UCAS and Guardian University Rankings
• Writing clever and impactful follow-ups to big student stories – e.g. the housing crisis, marking boycotts, ChatGPT on campus
• Working towards monthly pageview targets as set by the Editor-in-Chief

You must have:

• Six months to one year’s experience writing stories with an impressive readership – at a student paper, regional or national title
• Proven experience prioritising and managing multiple tasks at once
• A demonstratable understanding of what’s trending and what students want to read about – from campus trends, mental health, to the newest Netflix show and what’s going big on TikTok
• A 2.1 degree from a UK university

Benefits:

• £22,000 with a pay review after a year
• Hours: 9 am-6 pm on weekdays (with the option to start at 8 am and finish at 5 pm)
• 4.30pm finishes on a Friday
• 25 days holiday a year plus bank holidays
• Flexible home/remote working options
• Access to our plant-filled office in Spitalfields, East London, which has perks like free yoga classes, cake and office drinks
• A young, sociable, ambitious team
• 24/7 access to doctors via the private WeCare app – for your physical or mental health
• Company-wide parties and retreats every year
• A company MacBook Air

To apply, email your CV plus the following to Editor-in-Chief Grace Vielma ([email protected]):

1. Send links to three of your published stories
2. Pitch three stories that are extremely relevant on the day of your application. At least one of these should live in the news section. Write your headline and a very brief synopsis

Applications close on Monday 26th June 2023 at midnight, and candidates should be available to start ASAP