Communications Officer

Job Title: Communications Press Officer

Work Base: On site in office (Sutton)

Responsible to

• Head of Press & Public Affairs
• Co-ordinating with:
• National Director
• Fundraising & Marketing Team
• Research & Communications Manager
• Parliamentary and Public Affairs Officer Community Outreach Team

Purpose:

• Working as part of a dynamic and growing team, this post would enable the successful candidate to deliver on the charities strategic objective to raise the charity’s profile in the media by means of increased coverage of Christian persecution-related issues both in traditional and digital platforms.
• The post involves expanding the charities media output – both traditional and digital media – thereby increasing public recognition of Christian persecution issues and raising the charity’s profile, helping it to become the go-to organisation for all media inquiries on the topic.

Responsible for

Areas of Responsibility will include, but not be limited to:

• Working with the Head of Press & Public Affairs and others on plans to
  
  • Review our current media outreach
  • Develop a revised strategy to meet current media needs - providing more instant and accessible materials for online and traditional media consumption
• Working with colleagues to develop the relationship between ACN (UK) and ACN (International) regarding media
• To act as a principal point person for the media relations
• To help support the advocacy objectives of the charity through media outreach
• Working with colleagues, to advise on and implement a much-expanded programme of ACN media outreach, assessing options including regular audio (radio) output
• Working with colleagues to devise and implement a programme harnessing evolving digital media opportunities including podcasts and blogs
• To implement and improve media monitoring programme
• Periodically to deputise for the Head of Press and Public Affairs and the Research & Communications Manager and attend meetings on their behalf

External and Internal Relationships

The role will also develop strong working relationships and liaise with individuals both within and outside Aid to the Church in Need. Internally, these include the rest of the Press and Public Affairs team, the Fundraising and Marketing team, the Senior Administrator and the Community Outreach team. Working with the team, Head of Press is also an important aspect of the role.

Technical Competencies:

• Significant and demonstrable experience of writing copy – both online and hard copy – hard news and feature-writing.
• Experience of networking and liaising with stakeholders at all levels.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• An eye for detail.
• IT literate: Microsoft Office suite including Excel, Word and PowerPoint essential.

Personal/Interpersonal Competencies

• Excellent inter-personal skills.
• Strong organisational skills – able to prioritise and willing to “own” distinct areas of work.
• A self-starter, able to work both independently and as part of a team.
• Tenacity, persistence and flexibility.
• Ability to work well under pressure.

Strategic Competencies:

• Ideally some knowledge of persecution of Christians and other minorities.
• Ideally experience of or an interest in the charity sector.