Head of Social

Location: HSK, London

Position: 10-month FTC

About Us

The i Paper is the only UK national newspaper that has never supported a political party and it reaches more than 9.2 million readers each month in print and online. It is committed to delivering accurate, impartial news and intelligent debate, trusting readers to make up their own minds. It was the winner of 2024 UK Newspaper of the Year and was named News Website of the Year in 2025. It is rapidly growing its digital subscriptions base, recently hitting 80k total subscriptions.

www.theipaper.com  

The i Paper is a dynamic and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity and innovation in journalism. With a commitment to employee growth, our benefits package increases with tenure, providing generous holiday allowances, health support, and opportunities for professional development. Join us in a vibrant newsroom where your leadership will inspire a talented team to deliver impactful stories that resonate with millions of readers.

 

 

About the Role

The i Paper’s looking for a Head of Social to oversee the distribution of high-quality social content and develop our off-platform community engagement. The successful candidate will have excellent news judgement, the ability to understand difference audiences and their needs and will lead the social team across all our channels. 

You will be responsible for developing and engaging new audiences and supporting the growing impact of our paid social campaigns. 

You will also lead on the launch of community engagement projects, focusing on building our audiences’ relationships with our journalists – bringing them front and center of distribution. 

Day to day, you’ll be expected to ensure the team responds swiftly and creatively to the news agenda, adapting our work based on insights from detailed data analysis.

Key projects 

• Community engagement - Launch high value community engagement projects on existing and new social platforms
• Improve our social voice - improve our tone ofvoice social style guide to sell our content with more creativity and impact
• Implement new SEO/social cross-team strategies to stay ahead of the curve on audience developments and widen the reach of our journalism.

 Main Responsibilities

•  Lead our social team’s output across platforms – overseeing their work on a daily basis and ensuring our content is fully optimised.
• Inspire the team to creatively showcasethe best of The i Paper, and lead on reactive approaches based on the news agenda
• Develop paid social strategies to reach new audiences and convert high value subscribers via social campaigns
• Launch community engagement projects on new and existing platforms to deepen the relationship with our audiences
• Overseeand innovate the production of our bespoke social media graphics and visuals to showcase our best content
• Line-manage junior staff to develop their skills and ensure objectives are aligned with business goals
• Lead regular in-depth analysis of our social platforms, to constantly adapt our output and spot new opportunities to reach a wider audience

 

Person Specification

• 5-6 years of newsroom experience with proven ability to deliver to pressing deadlines and ideate quickly in the face of breaking news
• Excellent understanding of existing and emerging social media and the differing requirements for each platform
• Experience running paid social media campaigns across a variety of platforms – with a focus on converting audiences to paid subscribers
• Line management experience – running a team within a newsroom to deliver growth on social channelsfor both reach and engagement
• Proficient in data analysis tools such as Google Analytics and ability to present insights to senior leaders
• Proven experience of adapting to the changing social media landscape and iterating work dependent on in-depth insights and analysis
• Strong communicationskills, including ability to pitch ideas well
• An experimental, creative approach to problem solving
• Strong news sense and a creative approach to storytelling

 

Our Commitment

We are committed to increasing diversity and maintaining an inclusive workplace culture. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.  

We are Disability Confident Committed. Please let us know if you require any recruitment documentation in other formats or if you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the recruitment process. Please be assured that any such information will be held separately to your recruitment application and will not be considered as part of the selection process.