Media Relations Manager – Trade Body - Gardening/ Agriculture – Home Counties

• Support development of media and press aspects of the Public Affairs and Policy, working closely with the Public Affairs and Policy Manager to ensure accuracy.

• Identify, develop and maintain relationships with national and trade journalists, other trade body and stakeholder (NGOs) comms counterparts and government press offices to maximise positive industry coverage.

• Managing the Media Office with external agency support, taking a proactive and reactive approach to answering media enquiries - ensuring they are dealt with in an effective and timely fashion

• Draft, oversee and review news and announcement management for policy related comms, for a variety of communications channels. Disseminate directly through defined channels and work with Marketing Team colleagues on website and other channels ie Social Media

• Taking a proactive and collaborative approach to planning crisis communications and being able to implement necessary actions.

• Establish and manage the media spokesperson panel, providing regular media training support for members, on-going support and overseeing recruitment and management of the panel to achieve the external communications goals.

• Present to member groups and committees on media and press engagement and the wider external environment, building profile, understanding and knowledge of the function by members.

• Travel to member sites to build knowledge and understanding of their businesses to help inform and influence our communications approach.

The successful candidate will have:

• Demonstrable communications experience encompassing media relations, PR and content/editorial, with a good understanding and interest in the reputational, legislative and regulatory issues impacting the garden industry.

• An excellent communicator and networker; able to forge effective working relationships, with the ability to influence and persuade at all levels.

• Good industry and wider national media and trade contacts or knowledge and networking experience.

• Sound experience of showing initiative in creating positive news stories.

• High level of persuasive writing and using new and different comms techniques to communicate the organisation’s key messages to different audiences.

• Excellent strategic planning skills with the ability to calculate, develop and integrate time plans to ensure a consistent and timely delivery.

• An eye for detail with the ability to multi-task, work well under pressure and within a small team.

• IT Literate with demonstrable knowledge of MS Office including Outlook.

£45,000, hybrid working + benefits

To find out more, contact Edwina Goldman – edwina@jflrecruit.com