News Writer

Location: Sydney / Melbourne

Employment Type: Full-time

PEDESTRIAN.TV is Australia's best known youth publisher. We're the spicy corner of the internet, creating content for our chronically online Gen Z and millennial audience. Our readers come to us for our no BS, jargon free coverage of the issues that matter to them.

PEDESTRIAN.TV is on the hunt for a gun News Writer ready to level up their media career. The successful applicant will be a news obsessive who cares deeply about reporting, breaking and explaining the news to our hungry readers. If you wake up and inhale the latest headlines, blast news podcasts instead of Sabrina Carpenter on your morning walk, and are the one in your friend group explaining the latest AusPol drama, we want to hear from you.

The news cycle changes daily, so no two days will look the same. Your job will primarily be writing news stories for our website, but creating scroll-stopping vertical videos (TikToks and Instagram Reels) and highly shareable Instagram carousels to elevate your reporting is a plus.

Excellent written skills are a must, as is news judgement. You'll innately know when a story is worth hitting vs when it's hot air, and can read past the headlines, PR spin and noise to sniff out the real story. If picking up the phone and chasing down an original quote while on a deadline makes you sweat, then this isn't the job for you.

We're ideally looking for the candidate who, with a little training, will be landing exclusives and breaking news on a regular basis. We can help you with the journalism basics, but what we can't teach you is the hunger to land a scoop. You either have it or you don't.

• Has 2+ years experience working the news beat in a fast-paced newsroom, or equivalent experience freelancing / creating content
• You're a self-starter with the drive to pitch and develop original stories rather than waiting for assignments.
• You have a strong news sense with the ability to spot fresh, original angles that resonate with Gen Z and millennial audiences, and bring the story to life from pitch to publish.
• You're extremely online and have your finger on the pulse of what's trending on TikTok, X, and Instagram before the algorithm even does.
• You're a passionate storyteller with a distinct, hilarious, and engaging voice that perfectly matches the PEDESTRIAN.TV tone. Formality? We don\'t know her.
• You're not afraid to jump on the phone and call sources to chase down leads and verify facts. In fact, you've hit up your best placed sources before you even pitch the story.
• You have the ability to balance speed with accuracy in a fast-paced newsroom.
• You understand the numbers and have experience using analytics (e.g., Google Analytics, Parsley) to make informed editorial decisions.
• You're a team player bursting with ideas, with an ability to work autonomously and manage multiple chaotic deadlines at once.

If you don't fit every single one of these points, then we still encourage you to apply. What's more important is the right attitude and willingness to learn fast on the job.

The role is a full-time position and is based out of Pedestrian Group's offices in either Sydney and Melbourne.

We like to think we're a pretty good place to work, particularly for young journos looking to break into the media industry. Some of the perks include:

• Access to Nine training (we're wholly owned by Nine Entertainment Group, FYI), as well as the chance to learn from some of the best young journos, writers and content creators in the biz.
• Half day Fridays once a month.
• The option to WFH 2x days per week.
• A supportive, no silly questions, all ideas are good ideas type of workplace. If you want to make something happen, we'll figure out how to get you there.
• A kitchen overflowing with snacks and Coke Zeros, and an office manager very open to snack requests (especially for our Diet Coke fans).
• An open door company culture. We're all about honesty, not secrets.
• Regular pub drinks, run clubs, dress up days, and more. Not to sound too like a 2010s start up, but yes, we do have ping pong and Foosball tables, and yes, they're pretty good.
• An office teeming with some of the most creative people you'll ever meet.
• Also, a dog friendly office. We're not saying that a cute dog will get you hired, but we're not not saying that, either. (For HR reasons, this is a joke.)

If you're keen to join us, send us the following:

• A cover letter written in your best understanding of P.TV's trademark conversational tone. Give it a crack We want to hear from you, not what ChatGPT told you to write in a cover letter.
• Your CV (feel free to get creative)
• Relevant examples of your work (including written and video content where relevant)

We can't wait to meet you