UPDATE 5TH JULY 2023 - We have received an incredible number of highly qualified applicants for this role, so we're no longer accepting any new applications.
If we fail to find the perfect candidate we will reopen the vacancy in a few weeks time.
Thank you for your interest in cycle sprog.
Do you have the passion and skills needed to publish amazing online content that will help inspire the next generation of cyclists?
We're currently recruiting for a Reviews and Rides Editor and we'd love to hear from you!
Not you? Please share and help spread the word!
Job Description
Title: Reviews and Rides Editor, Cycle Sprog
Reporting to: Editor
Salary: £25,000 - £31,000 pa pro rata depending on experience
Hours: Negotiable between 21 and 35 hours per week
Location: Kendal, Cumbria, with flexibility to work from home
Cycle Sprog is THE website for family cycling.
1.5 million parents and grandparents visit us each year when they’re looking for a new kid’s bike or advice about cycling with children.
We need someone to join our team to look after product reviews and leisure cycling content.
You’ll be inspiring the next generation of families to get out on their bikes, as well as working with some of the biggest names in the industry.
Responsibilities
Managing our review panel
Every year we get asked to review many different products, including bikes, trailers, seats, helmets, clothing, books and services. One of our core values is we only recommend something if we’re happy for our friends or family to use it, so our readers know they can trust our advice.
You will manage the review process end to end which means no two days will be the same. You could be recruiting and managing reviewers, speaking to brands about their R&D plans, arranging products for review, updating our review waiting list or ensuring all our published reviews meet our high standards for honesty and accessibility.
You will need the interpersonal skills to deal with a range of people including brand marketing managers, courier companies, parents and their children. You must also enjoy working virtually as part of a small entrepreneurial team.
Your organisation skills will ensure you keep up to date with how the reviewers are progressing and ensure they deliver content as expected for our editorial calendar.
Your technical and mechanical knowledge of bicycles will allow you to resolve any issues during the review period and support the reviewers in creating their final output.
Once the review is complete you will edit the final content ready for proof reading and publishing plus liaise with the brand to return products.
Creating sponsored product content
Our clients rely on us to produce sponsored content to support their product launches and marketing plans.
You will work with brand marketing managers to agree the scope of the work, co-ordinate delivery of any products and sign off content.
You will be responsible for ensuring the content is created in the agreed format to a high standard. Some of this you may create yourself, and some will involve working with other members of our team. You must therefore be able to communicate clearly and enthusiastically both via writing and video. Taking great photos (stills and action) will come naturally to you.
This work often has a short turnaround to support a launch deadline so you need to be comfortable managing your own workload, reprioritising work items where needed.
Editing our leisure cycling content
The product review process has busy times with lull times in between.
During these quieter times you will be obsessing over the quality and scope of the advice we provide for families wanting to go leisure riding.
Our aim is to take people from curious to confident, so you will be creating written, audio and visual content for all abilities and cycling styles.
The range of topics will be wide ranging and could include gentle leisure rides, mountain, road and gravel riding, family cycling holidays and bikepacking adventures. You’ll be providing expert advice on getting started, selecting equipment, choosing routes, and improving in confidence and skill.
This will take different formats depending on the audience, and could include written blog posts and emails, detailed PDF booklets, video lessons and podcasts.
Essential Skills
Confident to assemble, review, write about and (sometimes) fix bicycles and cycling equipment
Ability to create awesome content in a range of media, including written, video and audio
Organisational ability to manage a review panel and product waiting list, along with multiple editorial work items with different deadlines
Excellent product and action photography skills
Passionate about getting more families cycling
An interest in kids bikes and family cycling equipment
Previous experience
Working for a small business requires the flexibility and confidence to turn your hand to many tasks.
We don’t expect you to have experience of all these skills but let us know if you have a background in any of the following:
- Product reviews
- Review panel management
- Working for an online magazine or website
- Writing for parenting or cycling audiences
- Experience of the cycling industry
- Management / mentoring of junior staff members or apprentices
- Using WordPress
- Leisure cycling, bikepacking or mountain biking (with or without kids)
- SEO techniques to maximize ranking potential of content published
- Social Media channel management
- Digital Marketing, PR
- Video creation / production
- Podcasting
- Teaching
- Professional photography
- Sales and customer relations
Special Requirements
This role requires dealing with bulky products such as pedal bikes, cargo bikes and trailers. Our preference is that you can easily access Cycle Sprog HQ in Kendal, Cumbria for this part of your work.
We are also willing to consider applicants who can demonstrate they have adequate secure storage space available elsewhere in the UK.
This post is subject to a DBS basic check
Occasional support for external events may be required
What’s it like working for Cycle Sprog?
We’re a small team who are passionate about getting more kids on bikes and seeing families cycling together.
We are geographically spread across the UK, so work as a virtual team. You will be using Asana to manage your workload, and use online meetings and chat to communicate with other team members.
We have an office in Kendal, Cumbria which is used for a mix of desk-based work, product storage, filming and photography.
Being a small business means we all wear many hats and enjoy trying new things. We keep doing what’s working and fail fast and move on with the things that don’t.
Our small size means we can be adaptable to market trends and client requirement, but this also means priorities can change and deadlines shift around. If you like a standard daily routine with fixed responsibilities, set activities and no surprises Cycle Sprog is NOT the employer for you.
Most of us have caring and/or voluntary responsibilities so know being able to work flexible hours is important.
For that reason, we will calculate your salary each month based on the number of hours you work. So, if you do need to work a couple less hours to meet your responsibilities, we can usually accommodate that, subject to client deadlines.
You will get 25 days (pro rata) holiday a year and we also try to support additional unpaid leave requests subject to business priorities.
We also have a flexible Bank Holiday policy if you celebrate different religious and cultural holidays to those marked by the statutory UK Bank Holidays.
We contribute to an ethical pension scheme and provide health insurance.
In return we expect you to be as obsessed as we are about producing amazing original content, growing our audience, looking after our clients, and increasing our revenue - all whilst getting more families riding bicycles.
Want to join us?
Please send your CV or LinkedIn Profile, a covering statement telling us what you’d bring to this role, and several examples of your content creation to [email protected].
We aim to start interviewing w/c 3rd July 2023 but we are not putting a final closing date on this position. We will consider applications and continue interviewing until we find the correct person for the role.
PDF Download for printing:
Cycle Sprog Reviews and Rides Editor Job Description 2023 V1.0
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