Big news! We’re hiring a new reporter for The Dispatch, and we need your help finding them. Here's what we're looking for.
Role details
Location: Birmingham (we need someone who lives full-time in the West Midlands, or is willing to relocate)
Salary: Dependent on experience (circa. £25k-30k), with an opportunity for pay to increase next year
Basis: Full-time (including some out-of-hours work)
Office/remote: Three days per week in our office in the city centre
Start date: October/November 2025
Deadline: Sunday 5 October. Scroll down for details on how to apply.
About us
The Dispatch has grown much faster than we expected it to. We started out in October 2023 with the mission of providing top quality journalism in Birmingham, one of this country’s most important cities, and the public has responded with huge support. Since then, we have published major pieces of journalism and built up a community of readers who trust us to tell them what’s really going on.
We already have 25,000 readers on our mailing list and almost 1,500 paying members, and we’ve now reached the point that we want to hire a third staff writer, joining our star team of Kate Knowles and Samuel McIlhagga.
The success of The Dispatch is based on the simple idea of giving journalists the time they need to produce great stories. Our writers don’t have to churn out multiple stories per day, and that means they can do old fashioned reporting: building sources, finding evidence and giving readers new insights and revelations as a result. We expect our staff writers to be really smart and elegant writers, but also to have the reporting instincts required to get hold of new information.
The Dispatch is part of Mill Media, which since being founded in June 2020, has become a new force in British journalism, publishing high quality local journalism in six UK cities. The company has been described as “one of the most interesting and impressive media startups of the last decade,” by the FT’s John Burn-Murdoch, and as “very, very impressive” by the Wall Street Journal’s editor Emma Tucker.
As well as you, our readers, our financial backers include Sir Mark Thompson, the chief executive of CNN and former boss of the New York Times and BBC, who said he was investing because of the “exceptional quality” of our work. In the past year, our stories have led to political resignations, questions in parliament and have even prompted a police investigation into fraud at a university. The Observer wrote that we are “shaking up local news.”
If you’d like to support The Dispatch’s expansion further, we’ve got a special introductory offer to our full paying subscription — brilliant local reporting for just £1 a week for the first three months.
What we’re looking for
This role requires at least two years of experience in journalism. It’s a job for a journalist who believes in our mission, loves the kind of reporting we do and is passionate about applying our brand of journalism to many more stories in the years ahead. We need someone who has a natural flair for writing — who will deliver the kind of stories our readers look forward to when they open our newsletters.
This role also requires the kind of person who relishes trying to get hold of people on the phone and enjoys chasing stories even if they seem like dead ends; who likes getting to grips with complex issues and can explain those issues clearly to readers.
You will be working closely alongside Kate and Samuel, including sometimes collaborating on stories, and you will have a lot of contact with the editors and writers from the wider Mill Media team. You will also be expected to pitch in with various non-writing tasks, like helping with our social media and liaising with freelancers.
Crucially, this is a role for someone who likes working really hard. This job isn’t easy and doesn’t always fit into the normal working day. We give some of the most rigorous and intense training and development in British journalism, which means that you will grow very fast by working with us. But we need people who are incredibly committed and energised by the task.
Key responsibilities
Producing consistently high-quality writing for The Dispatch that informs and delights our readers and makes us stand out.
Generating lots of highly original story ideas every month, both for you and for our other staff and freelance writers, ranging from culture to crime, food to local politics.
Developing exceptional contacts within Birmingham’s political, cultural and business worlds so that we can break big stories.
Helping to grow The Dispatch by posting on social media, assisting with our marketing and fostering strong bonds with our community of members.
Working pattern: This is a full-time role. You will work three days a week at a co-working space in Birmingham with Kate and Samuel, and remotely the rest of the time. You will make fortnightly visits to the company’s office in Manchester.
Attributes required
Superb writing: Someone who can write stories that our readers don’t just like but love, whether it’s a colour piece, an interview or a newsier feature. A key part of this is being able to write with clarity and distil complex issues for readers.
Reporting flair: Someone with an unusual talent for unearthing information, including huge energy when pursuing a story, a knack for getting hold of people on the phone and the ability to develop contacts over time.
Independence: Someone capable of working independently without lots of supervision from editors — that means being exceptionally organised, very communicative with colleagues and self-motivated when working on stories.
Growth mindset: Someone with an entrepreneurial spirit who is motivated by The Dispatch’s growth as well as our journalism and will enjoy growing our social media accounts and spreading our brand.
Dispatch values: Someone who is committed to our key editorial values: accuracy, nuance, thoughtfulness, fairness to sources and giving readers the context they need to understand what is going on.
How to apply
To apply for this role, email hiring@millmediaco.uk by Sunday 5 October at the latest, with an explanation (in the body of the email) about why you are interested in working with us and why you think you might be a good fit for this role.
Please also include a few links to some of your favourite work you’ve done and please attach your CV or link to your LinkedIn. Feel free to include story ideas you have that you would like to work on if you joined The Dispatch.
If you have any questions, just get in touch via the same email. Given the amazing diversity of this city, we are keen to reach applicants from as many communities as possible, so we would be grateful if you could share this job ad with your networks.
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