Guest Booker

Times Radio has shaken up the broadcasting firmament since launching in June 2020, and 2023’s nomination for UK Station of the Year at the Arias demonstrates the impact we have made.  As a live news radio station, we have built up a strong reputation for providing well-informed, thoughtful and intelligent news and discussion, covering the key stories of the day. We have combined the famous journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with the radio experience of News Broadcasting to create a station with a world-class line-up of presenters talking to excellent guests, who value conversation over confrontation.

Your role: We want Times Radio to stand out as a home for high-impact, news-making interviews.  As the guest booker on Times Radio you’ll be responsible for thinking of ideas for genuinely newsworthy guests who will set the agenda and get Times Radio noticed.  You’ll successfully bid and land them, and write the best possible guest briefs as well as ensuring they are in vision, enabling the interview to travel as widely as possible.

Day to day you will: 

• Identify agenda-setting and big name guests for programmes across the Times Radio schedule
• Work persuasively with individuals and their representatives to arrange appearances on Times Radio
• Write exceptional interview briefs, with a view to ensuring the guests are news-making
• Ensure we have guests in vision for our social media channels
• Help turn around the best news lines for external impact, working on press releases and liaising with our partners within Times Media and News Broadcasting to ensure coverage beyond Times Radio 
• Work on special projects, as needed, including outside broadcasts

What we’re looking for from you: 

• You are an experienced producer/guest booker with a bulging contacts book and a proven track record in delivering big-name interviews capable of making significant impact
• You have a creative mind and the ability to bring fresh-thinking to interview briefs in order to help Times Radio content stand out in a crowded market place
• You have the ability to build relationships with newsmaking and culturally important guests and their representatives
• You’re an excellent writer with a strong eye for a news line
• You are used to working closely with presenters and production teams
• You have a reliable understanding of relevant compliance and legal issues

We are News Broadcasting: Driving digital innovation, our people create award-winning national and local radio and podcasts which are must-listens for millions across the UK, Ireland and beyond. Life sounds good with Virgin Radio - home to Chris Evans at Breakfast and Graham Norton at the weekend. talkSPORT, the world’s biggest sports radio station, delivers the very best live sport and analysis and is truly powered by its millions of fans. Launched in June 2020 Times Radio brings together the peerless journalistic expertise of The Times and The Sunday Times with world-class broadcast talent including John Pienaar, Aasmah Mir and Michael Portillo. In 2022 we launched TalkTV, a major new TV channel available to everyone across the UK, delivering a schedule of news, current affairs, entertainment and sport, with Piers Morgan in a primetime evening show.

Life at News: At News UK our people are our heartbeat - they are the driving force behind our brands and we want to enable people to thrive.  Some of us work flexibly, in many different ways. We encourage you to talk to us about the flexibility you would like.  Many of us work in a hybrid way between one of the News UK & Ireland offices and remotely.  

We champion diversity and inclusion, we strive to maximise and encourage every individual’s potential and ensure everyone feels valued. We support this through our Diversity Board, D&I  strategy & training, creating more diverse content and our intern and apprenticeship programmes.  We also have 11 employee-led networks. 

We take pride in looking after our amazing talent at News UK supporting the Health and Wellbeing of our staff. Some of what we offer includes: 

• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%;
• 25 days holiday and up to 4 volunteering days per year;
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks;
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
• Private medical insurance covering pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, ClassPass at Home, weekly virtual HIIT, yoga and run club classes
• ‘Bikes for Work’ scheme
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as physio/massage and counselling 

We want to ensure that everyone we meet has the opportunity to perform to their best when interviewing. Please let us know, at any stage, whether you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, and we will do our best to accommodate.  

News UK is an official partner of the Journalism Diversity Fund, founder of the Journalism and Disability Forum, and proud member of the Valuable 500. At News UK, we will continue to promote an inclusive and diverse workplace, to help people with visible and non visible disabilities create careers in media and aim to make our content accessible to all.