FT Alphaville, the FT’s hyper-active financial blog, is looking to expand. We need a new reporter immediately to replace Helen Thomas, who has escaped to New York to write Lex. But we are also looking for additional talent to develop the site further - bright, web-enthused writers who will help build upon Alphaville’s hugely successful first 18 months.
The immediate need is for someone based in London. Starting at 7am, you will need to be a natural early riser, able to write quickly and fluidly first thing in the morning. Clean, crisp writing and the ability to master the site’s light-hearted, sometimes jovial style, is essential.
The new Alphaville reporter will need to have solid news judgement to select stories of interest to the site’s core readership, and a keen eye for the quirky angles and offbeat takes that make Alphaville so popular. Within the site’s financial remit, there is scope to build your own area of particular interest, but comfort in writing across deal stories, the credit and equity markets, private equity and hedge funds is necessary. Financial literacy and a sense of humour are essential.
A rudimentary understanding of how the Internet and blogs function would be useful (including hyperlinking and tagging) as would a working knowledge of Reuters and/or Bloomberg. In addition, Alphaville reporters source and insert their own pictures and graphs, so some idea of how to find pictures online and use picture software would be helpful. We use Datastream to generate charts.
Alphaville is currently undergoing a refresh and embarking on development work aimed at substantially expanding the site. In a small team, it is important that reporters take an all-round interest, getting involved in development and design work and liaising closely with the product development and commercial teams at the FT and beyond.
Applications, which should be by email, should reach Paul Murphy at paul.murphy@ft.com by May 19th. The application process is likely to involve joining the Alphaville team for at least one morning for those based in London.
Pearson is committed to equality of opportunity. We are determined to create a diverse group at all levels of our company - and we welcome all members of the community we serve to apply for openings with us.
CAn i be condsiered forteh job? i thnk i hvae Got what i tyhakes to be on maRketslive!
The only reason why ML always starts late is because it takes the Landlord 4-5 minutes to open the pub up, and serve the team their “breakfast”
And what about having Helen start up the US equivalent of Markets Live? (Gotham Live?)
Now which of Surralun’s fired apprentices would suit - I think the ex Army guy would be great for the site or you could wait until they fire Raef…but he could be too much of a sartorial challenge to the PM/NH wing. Or you could wait until next week when Michael has to get fired and get him in for a morning to see if he really is that big a ****…
FT Alphaville has automatically blocked suspected profanities in this comment.
7-figure salary? (Only if you include the pence?).
wd it be a pre-requisite to be bearish?
(as wella s unabel to type/spell?)
I’ll do it. I’m a Southampton fan. Should provide some entertainment on a slow news day….
Pity - you would have thought at £1.50 a paper FT could have have shouted you the trip! But we are in a credit crunch I suppose … I could do with some sun too. My skin isn’t so much white as translucent these days
@Monkey - Hahaha. It’s not all glam - I paid for this ticket
Stacy-Marie … SOLD!! Where do I sign up? And what’s my flying allowance for the year? FT gravy train here I come. Choo Choo!!
She is actually. Beach on Trinidad & Tobago. Tough life.
Just to be clear — this is in now way an administrative job, clearing up my mess.
Helen Thomas inserted that line, because she is uber-organised - and im not.
Murphy/Alphaville
@Monkey - well, right now I’m blogging from the Caribbean…
“working on the post lunch wrap lag”
i don’t know what it means but i’m gonna use that one
Any other perks to the job? I know Paul and Neil are always being taken out to sporting events, gala dinners and, very shortly, NY. They even had an away day in Newcastle for the Crock! What about the rest of you guys? Get outside much?
@Anonymous - no, but as we mentioned, applicants do need to be very organised and both willing and able to get involved with planning/development.
@Growsley - in a perfect world, it would be a 7am - 3pm job, but the reality is the hours tend to be longer. We’re working on the post lunch wrap lag. This week has been a model!
” Finally, the organisational wherewithal and disciplinary skills to monitor Paul Murphy’s to-do list would be a great advantage.”
Is this a secretary/PA job dressed up as a fledgling journo role…..
Okay, so you have to start at 7am, what time do you finish? Seem like a boozy lunch follws ML most days; I guess that’s why nothing much gets posted after the lunchwrap…
Ooh, I nominate OJ@Home, he’s a natural for matching the Alphaville spag rules…
@OJ - don’t tell anyone, but we do sometimes work from home. Lack of access to Bloomberg/Reuters not ideal though. So if you’re willing to stump up for your own terminal…
do you think this isa job that could be oden form home? in which case why bother to get up? everything to hand from my mattress…
you lost me at naturally early riser … do you mean to say that you are actually in work before 11.04 - the unofficial start of ML?