Work with a team that has unique expertise combining the power of journalism and the law to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and promote human rights. 

For more than 35 years, we have promoted the highest standards in journalism by training reporters around the world to cover issues relevant to their local context, accurately and impartially. Today, we work to strengthen local and national journalism, improve media ethics, standards and regulation, combat misinformation, and explore and shape the future of the profession. We do this through newsroom consultancy, journalism training and mentoring, capacity-building, and via our funding of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. 

We are seeking a highly skilled Media Development Advisor with deep technical journalism expertise and exceptional training capabilities to support the Foundation's Resilience of Independent team. The function of the team is to provide technical oversight to media development projects, develop new and innovative approaches and products to address emerging and longstanding issues faced by the media, explore collaboration and research with external stakeholders and engage and support our network of world-class consultants and over 20,000 alumni.

The ideal candidate must be a technical journalism expert with proven thought leadership capabilities and the ability to design and deliver innovative learning solutions as well as oversee the quality of our learning programmes and RIM activities. As TRF projects are multi-layered and leverage the expertise of a variety of teams, they require media development sector knowledge combined with strong stakeholder engagement skills. Accordingly, the candidate will also have quality assurance, curriculum development and network management expertise.

This is a fixed term 12-month contract, with an opportunity to extend.

About the Role: 

As the Media Development Advisor at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, you will work with the Resilience of Independent Media team and other TRF teams to implement the Resilience of Independent Media Strategy as well as provide technical oversight and journalism expertise to our funded projects. This involves management of several workstreams:

Key internal initiatives include helping develop a structured RIM Advisory system to provide technical support and Quality oversight to projects and proposals in a more structured and sustainable way; as well as external-facing initiatives to engage with key stakeholders and identify partnerships for relevant Business development opportunities and for elevating TRF thought leadership.

• Oversee the RIM’s technical advisory support to projects, and proposals, while helping develop a structured system for responding to media development requests.

• Collate learnings from our learning programmes and stakeholders to inform design of new learning products as well as refine existing ones to ensure TRF continues to offer stakeholders with high-value, competitive offerings.

• Deliver training to key strategic projects where relevant.

• Co-design innovative journalism learning products that are bespoke and relevant to TRF's partners, incorporating emerging trends and best practices in journalism education

• Engage key contacts and stakeholders to advise BD on partnerships and funding opportunities in the sector.

• Streamline the current advisory support process into a more sustainable, data driven service that might include an intake and triage system for critical vs. routine requests, office hours model, knowledge base of toolkits and resources, and a structured upskilling training programme for staff on journalism and training programmes.

• Drive change management: communicate the new ways of working, embed consistent use of the system, and secure leadership and team buy in. 

• Coordinate with programme delivery teams and other TRF units to ensure alignment of standards, tools and processes. 

• Stays abreast of the latest developments in journalism practice, media technology, and adult learning methodologies.

About You

To be our Media Development Advisor, you will likely have: 

• Strong technical journalism background with demonstrated working journalism experience, knowledge of editorial processes, and best practice journalism standards and ethics. 

• Proven experience in media development or journalism capacity building, including programme design, implementation and evaluation. 

• Experience in curriculum/learning design and adult learning, with the ability to create concise, practical training and upskilling programmes for nonspecialist staff. 

• Familiarity with quality assurance in journalism of standard journalism training/and learning standards, checklists and evaluation frameworks.

• Experience in managing and streamlining processes or workflows (i.e.// as in newsrooms, or other types of organisations) is desirable.

• Change management and stakeholder engagement skills, is desirable.

• Experience working with international development partners and understanding of donor requirements and reporting standards is desirable. 

• Excellent communication and experience working with cross-functional teams.

• Strong organisational and time management skills, able to plan, document and hand over systems within defined timelines. 

• A flexible, creative and growth mindset, comfortable iterating and improving systems based on data and feedback. 

#LI-FP3

What’s in it For You?

• Global Perspective and Impact: Interested in working for a dynamic global organization with a focus on social impact? With hubs all over the world from Bangkok to Madrid to Rio de Janeiro, join a truly international team with a shared goal of helping to build societies around the world that are free, fair, and informed.

• Unique Approach: Our expertise in media and the law is world class. We combine the power of both to address the critical issues faced by humanity.

• Our Relevance: With a focus on advancing media freedom, fostering more inclusive economies and promoting human rights, our work has never been more needed than right now.

• Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer competitive salary packages and market-leading benefits.

• Learning & Development: We are dedicated to the continual professional development of our employees and offer access to both in-house and external training opportunities.

About Thomson Reuters Foundation

The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the corporate foundation of Thomson Reuters, the global news and information services company. As an independent charity, registered in the UK and USA, we leverage our media, legal and data driven expertise to strengthen independent journalism, enable access to the law and promote responsible business. Through news, media development, free legal assistance and data intelligence, we aim to build free, fair and informed societies.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.

We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.

As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.

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More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com