United Kingdom
An inquisitive and hard-working communications professional who has three of the vital qualities communicators need: the desire to inquire, the will to question, and the urge to inform. I have a passion for all things wordy, am an experienced blogger and writer, as well as having skills in PR and social media. My ambition is to share people's stories with the world, ranging from the light-hearted to those that impact us the most.
► Part of the Newsdesk, dealing with reactive queries and monitoring and rebutting print, online and broadcast coverage. ► Formerly part of the Safeguarding and Extremism Desk, with brief covering child sexual abuse and exploitation, modern slavery and missing people. ► Making proactive announcements, including writing press notices, fact sheets and pitching to journalists. ► Drafting and clearing ministerial and government quotes for media requests. Briefing journalists. ► Assessing and advising on bids for broadcast and written ministerial interviews. ► Providing media handling advice prior to the release of FOIs and ministerial submissions. ► Preparing cross-governmental media handling ahead of major announcements and external reports.
The Vegan Society is the oldest vegan society in the world, founded in 1944 in the UK by Donald Watson, who defined the word "vegan". We are an educational charity that provides information on various aspects of veganism. Our founding is celebrated annually on World Vegan Day (1st November). My role involved: ► Acting as the main contact for all media enquiries and main spokesperson for the Society and giving interviews to press, radio and TV. ► Arranging media interviews for staff and drafting briefings for them when appropriate. ► Identifying issues on which the society can comment and responding to negative coverage. ► Ensuring that all public statements follow our guidelines on style and policy. ► Generating ideas for press releases, blogs, news stories and other articles. ► Implementing the media and crisis management strategies. ► Monitoring and evaluating of our media using Vuelio. ► Sole handler of the out of hours media phone.
Co-operative News connects, champions and challenges the global co-operative movement. The website receives 46,000 unique monthly visitors and 90,000 page views. The fortnightly print edition - which is run on a subscriber basis - has a circulation of 6,000 and the readership of 15,000. My role involved: ► Seeking out new stories and curating a variety of multimedia content. ► Using data visualisation tools such as infographics, maps, charts and diagrams to enhance content. ► Administering the website. Uploading articles, embedding multimedia elements, tagging, SEO and sourcing copyright-free images. ► Managing social media feeds, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. ► Routinely collecting feedback and providing monthly statistics on digital engagement. ► Helping to discover/commission one-time and regular contributors. ► Covering conferences and events.
► Compiling press releases, building a network of contacts and a strong digital presence. ► Finding, researching and writing stories for the council’s news website, Shuttle. ► Drafting media quotes and organising interviews for Chief Officers and Executive Members. ► Organising media launches, campaigns, conferences and similar events.
► Jointly responsible for communicating to 20,000 students ► Managing social media channels, blog writing and creation of video content ► Curating student stories from around the University, campaign ideas and execution ► Raising brand awareness and the profile of the University The role was initially for three months, however my contract was extended for a further two months due to my exceptional performance.