BBC Hiring for Publicist, BBC Proms at London W1A Full Time

The BBC Proms is the biggest classical music festival in the world. We run over 80 live events over 2 months in the summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London and venues around the UK. Nearly everything we do is broadcast across BBC Radio, TV and online. We are a creative, innovative festival that connects with audiences around the UK and across the globe.

In any single week at the BBC Proms you could be working on events for singer-songwriter Moses Sumney, the London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Simon Rattle, jazz saxophonist Nubya Garcia and the BBC Orchestras and Choirs.

The BBC has five orchestras and 3 choirs presenting a wealth of orchestral and choral music to live and broadcast audiences across the UK.

You would be part of the Communications team looking after the BBC’s classical music content, and you’ll work closely with colleagues across Marketing, Learning, Publications, Business and Live Events.

Click here to see a taste of the Proms in 2021.

We want the Proms to be for everyone and are looking for people to help us do that.

Main Responsibilities

We’re looking for a Publicist to join the Communications Team for classical music. Your role focuses on the Proms and BBC Orchestras and Choirs, and contributes to delivering wide-reaching proactive press campaigns across all media platforms with a particular focus on reaching new, diverse audiences, and handling digital press and influencers. We are a small team that works very closely with the Marketing, Learning and Live Events teams at the Proms and BBC Orchestras and Choirs, and there are opportunities to grow your skills in all these areas.

You’ll also get the opportunity to work in collaboration with other teams across the BBC, including BBC Radio and TV networks, BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer, as well as external arts, cultural and media organisations.

For fuller details see Appendix of Job Description in the attached PDF / Please read carefully through the job description in the appendix and if that sounds like you, please apply below.

Are you the right candidate?

The successful candidate will have a strong track record of strategic communications across all media platforms. While no prior experience of classical music publicity is required, the successful candidate will be a passionate lover of live events, working closely with the artistic planning team to help shift audience profile across a number of priority areas: youth audiences; diversity & inclusion; and international recognition. With an increased focus on digital-first innovation, the candidate will keep abreast of current trends in press, marketing and digital industries that could shape our work and help re-define the Proms’ story. The successful candidate will have a strong news sense and an eye for a compelling story that will resonate with diverse audiences. The role involves close strategic planning with BBC Radio, TV and Digital teams to help support the Proms’ broad reach across international and national media outlets.

About the BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here

Package Description

Band: C
Contract type: Continuing contract
Location: Broadcasting House, London

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.