Publicist, BBC Radio 4, 12 month FTC

The Radio 4 publicity team supports flagship brands including Woman’s Hour, The Archers, Desert Island Discs and In Our Time, alongside multiple new commissions each month across all genres from comedy and drama, to factual, arts and entertainment.

This role will help deliver standout publicity campaigns for priority Radio 4 and BBC Sounds content, manage daily reactive press activity and protect and enhance the reputation of one of the BBC’s most high profile services.

There will also be opportunities to contribute to campaigns for programmes and content from across the breadth of the BBC’s output.

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

As a Publicist you will

• Lead creative, integrated publicity campaigns for priority BBC Radio 4 programmes, podcasts, presenters and editorial moments across print, online, broadcast and digital platforms.
• Deliver proactive campaigns from planning and messaging through to press materials, pitching, interviews, talent coordination and media opportunities.
• Secure strong media coverage by identifying compelling stories, developing clear narratives and building trusted relationships with journalists across news, arts, culture, entertainment, audio, TV, podcast and digital media.
• Manage daily reactive press activity, including journalist enquiries, breaking news lines, sensitive issues and high-profile editorial moments, and take part in the out-of-hours on-call rota.
• Work confidently with senior stakeholders, editors, commissioners, programme makers, presenters, talent, agents, independent producers and external publicists to develop and deliver effective publicity strategies.
• Provide clear communications and reputational advice to senior colleagues, helping to manage risks and align messaging with wider BBC priorities.
• Support forward planning across the Radio 4 schedule and wider speech audio publicity, including BBC Sounds campaigns, programme information, diary management, opportunity spotting and risk flagging.

Essential Criteria

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• A passion for radio, podcasts, speech audio and distinctive BBC storytelling, with strong ideas for how to spotlight Radio 4 content to reaching broad and new audiences.
• A proven track record of planning and delivering creative, effective publicity campaigns that secure strong coverage across print, online and broadcast media, as well as maximising digital and social media opportunities.
• Strong news judgement and understanding of media cycles, with experience spotting stories, managing reactive press enquiries and handling sensitive or high-profile reputational issues.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to work collaboratively with senior colleagues, editorial teams, talent, agents, producers and external partners, identifying and managing reputational issues, and providing clear communications advice.
• Excellent writing, organisational and prioritisation skills, with the ability to create effective campaign content and manage competing demands across a busy, fast-moving slate.

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

• Experience of delivering publicity campaigns for radio, podcasts, audio or other editorial content within a media, cultural or creative organisation.
• Experience working with content creators and digital talent to develop engaging publicity opportunities that reach new and diverse audiences.
• Excellent contacts and established relationships across the podcast and broadcast media and wider audio industry.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

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.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Recruitment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk

We are unable to accept applications via CV and only applications made online will be considered. Please click on the APPLY NOW button to proceed with your application.

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.