Media Relations Manager

Duration: Part time 3 days / week

Start date: ASAP

Salary: £35,000 - £ 40,000 pro rata (+£2,000 if based in London) 

Reporting to: Communications Director.

Location: Flexible. This role will be required to travel to our London HQ at least once a month, but can work flexibly as per Bite Back 2030’s hybrid working policy. 

Do you want to work with a vibrant, dynamic and youth driven organisation that is committed to creating healthy futures for British children by improving the food system?

Be part of the creative, agile and growing team behind Bite Back 2030’s exceptional teenage activists. Join us as our Media Relations Manager and contribute to our journey to help make the food system healthier and fairer.

About Bite Back 2030

It should be easy for us to eat healthily — it isn’t. The food system is rigged against us.

Young people are up against a flood of unhealthy food, pouring out of our high streets, supermarkets and school canteens. As a result processed foods, snacks, soft drinks and takeaways, are playing too big a role in their lives. Junk food is cheap and easy to access at a time when 3.3m young people under the age of 18 are overweight or have obesity. Rates among our poorest are double those of our wealthiest young people.

Covid-19 has only further served to highlight the injustices in the food system and sharpen the focus on the impact obesity has on health outcomes. There is a political moment now to accelerate change.

We believe young people are the key voice in driving this change in our food system. 

Co-founded by Jamie Oliver and launched in October 2019, our Youth Board have already featured widely in the media campaigning on a range of issues including free school meals, a 9pm watershed and an end to junk food advertising.

Last summer, 77 new youth leaders joined our movement and we plan to recruit, train and support 1,000 young people over the next three years to deliver high impact national and local campaigns. Their stories are the backbone of our content.

We are now seeking a creative, self-motivated and charismatic individual to join as Media Relations Manager reporting to the Director of Communications. You will collaborate across  our small and agile team and work closely with our young activists to raise the profile of Bite Back campaigns.  

We have developed a compelling brand and a strong narrative.  Our campaigns must continue to capture the public imagination and drive PR and media interest so they contribute to building our movement.  We also have a team of celebrity Ambassadors that work with us to amplify the voice and impact of our young people.

Role Description

We are looking for an experienced communications professional who can take our youth led campaigns, expert analysis and thought provoking research to new audiences using effective media engagement strategies. 

We are proud of our supportive culture, the diversity of our team, our commitment to true flexibility, and our beautiful office environment. We are looking for the best talent, and our search will not be limited by geography.

Bite Back 2030 was founded in 2019 by chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver and has grown in number, voice and influence. Now we need a brilliant, brave and charismatic PR professional to help amplify our campaigns and secure platforms for the voices of our fantastic young activists.

Key responsibilities:

• Championing our core beliefs and engaging new audiences with Bite Back's ideas on the food system and the challenges it poses to child health.
• Managing media enquiries and press outreach, and influencing journalists to take a helpful editorial position on our issue.
• Writing press releases and briefing documents.
• Developing a proactive media strategy that works alongside reactive opportunities including thought leadership, research publicity and expert commentary. 
• Working across teams to identify and deliver media opportunities.
• Developing the media skills of our young people and adult spokespeople.
• Generating content that appeals to a broad range of trade, specialist, local and national media outlets.

The Media Relations Manager will be critical to creating and delivering PR strategies that amplify our voice and influence.  

Skills / experience (required):

If you want to help you will need to be able to demonstrate at least five years experience in:

• Media relations: you will have a well-established set of senior contacts in the media and the ability to demonstrate an on-going commitment to maintaining and growing those relationships, along with a deep understanding of how to manage press enquiries and deal with journalists.
• Story telling: you will be able to create compelling headlines, identify newsworthy content and craft press packs that break through the pile to reach journalists and media professionals.
• Content creation: you will be skilled in the creation of blogs, op-eds and press releases and well used to drafting comments, Q&As and briefing documents.
• Strategy: you will be able to design proactive strategies and execute them by delivering quality content including press releases, and media events. You will also be able to analyse impact and report back to the leadership team.
• Writing: you will have exceptional writing skills that can be adapted to your audience.

• You will have a track record of taking a creative approach to PR that maximises the potential of our young people and goes well beyond the usual press release.

You will be able to show the following qualities:

• A bold and open mind: you will be prepared to think differently about issues and explore new ways of thinking about systemic failures and wont be afraid to communicate them with journalists.
• A level head: you will be comfortable working both reactively and proactively and to put all ego aside to work as part of a tight team, at times under pressure.
• A sense of humour: we believe work should be fun and that we all perform at our very best when we enjoy what we do.
• Creativity: you will come at issues from new and unusual angles and be prepared to work hard on finding fresh and surprising angles.
• Tenacity: we won’t always win our campaigns. You will be prepared to keep going or as our values say, set back won't set you back.

Skills / experience (desired):

• Experience in working with young people is welcomed but not essential.

Please apply with a CV and cover letter (in Word/Docs format to enable blinding) explaining why you are a good candidate for this position. Please send your application to recruitment@biteback2030.com. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our team and especially encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to apply.  Applications will be handled in line with our Recruitment Privacy Policy. 

Timelines

• Applications close at 17:00 on Tuesday 28th February
• Initial interviews are expected to take place week commencing Monday 6th March 

If you would like to speak to someone about the role, please contact Nicki Whiteman at nicki.whiteman@biteback2030.com  for any more information.