Near You Now are changing the way people discover and consume local news and information. Our ground-breaking local media recommendation system helps news organisations identify the most relevant stories for individual readers in any given location at any moment in time, and has recently been nominated for Most Innovative Digital Solution at the 2015 News Awards.
We are now establishing a high-calibre data journalism team to tell local stories with data. Based in Brighton, this is a rare opportunity to shape both your own data journalism career and the future of a high-growth start-up at the intersection of media and technology.
The Role
Identify & source new open, sensor & first-party datasets
Explore and combine datasets to identify engaging neighbourhood stories and interactives
Find new and compelling ways to tell data-driven stories that will engage and resonate with mobile and social media consumers
Define and implement an analytics framework to quantify & understand the stories, formats and interactions that engage local readers and social media users
Establish a house style, building on the interactive story elements and designs that work best
Create data & visualisation templates to allow rapid update and re-purposing of graphics, maps and charts for new stories.
Manage the content feed section of the Near You Now local recommendations service.
Input on editorial aspects of news & social engagement algorithm development
Required Skills & Abilities
Digital journalism experience, ideally in a busy newsroom environment
Ability to develop and tell stories for mobile & social media audiences
Ability to work to deadline and under pressure and produce a steady output of varied and interesting data-driven stories
Ability to collaborate with other team members with complementary skills
Willingness to constantly learn and experiment with new data journalism methods, tools and techniques.
The ideal candidate will have some or all of the following technical capabilities but please note these are preferable and not all are essential.
o Data Processing & Modelling – (eg Python, R, MySQL)
o Basic Front-end – (eg: HTML, CSS, JS)
o Data Visualisation – (eg: D3, Datawrapper, CartoDB, Leaflet.js)
Near You Now offers
Competitive salary and benefits in line with skills and experience
A stimulating work environment with a smart friendly team
Start-up share options scheme
Flexible working arrangements
..and ‘Name Your Perk’ – whether its Free-cake-Fridays or Monday Massages – each new Near You Now team member gets to name their own perk that will then be extended to the rest of the team.
How to apply
Please email your CV with a short covering letter and links to any examples of your data journalism work to jobs@nearyounow.co