Director

We’re looking to co-opt a reader director to help advise and guide the Leicester Gazette as it enters its biggest year yet. You’ll take the lead on planning and executing our Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Spring 2026, supported by the Gazette team.

A vacancy has opened up because one of our current reader directors can no longer dedicate the time required for the role.

Key information

Contract: Voluntary (expenses covered)

Hours: Flexible, one board meeting per quarter.

Location: Remote, with board meeting taking place at: Two Queens, 2 Queen Street, Leicester LE1 1QW

Applications closing date: Tuesday, 13 January, 9am

Any questions? If you have any questions please email info(at)leicester.news

We particularly encourage applications from women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people from working-class backgrounds.

Role responsibilities

• Provide oversight, governance, and leadership in pursuing the co-operative's objectives.
• Scrutinise staff performance in alignment with the co-operative's strategy.
• Review and evaluate performance against agreed targets.
• Agree on and monitor lines of delegation for decision-making.
• Ensure the integrity of financial information and robust risk management systems.
• Determine remuneration for executive directors; play a key role in their appointment and removal, including succession planning.
• Make decisions in the best interest of the Leicester Gazette, considering the interests of members, workers, and stakeholders.

About you

Essential

You must be a paid member of the Leicester Gazette to apply for this role. Join here.

• Commitment to the co-operative, its values, principles, and objectives.
• Sound knowledge of the operating environment of the Leicester Gazette.
• Knowledge of the governance and legal framework applicable to the Leicester Gazette.
• Understanding and acceptance of the legal duties, responsibilities, and liabilities of directors.
• Strategic vision and highly developed commercial experience.
• Proven record of financial management and budget-setting.
• Understanding of human resources, performance management, and change management in a similar organisation size.
• Willingness to devote necessary time and effort as a director.
• Sound, independent judgment with the ability to ask questions and challenge.
• Ability to think creatively.
• Willingness to embrace new technologies and ways of working.
• Ability to work effectively as a team member.
• Demonstrable experience in building and maintaining sustainable relationships with stakeholders and colleagues to achieve organisational objectives.
• Successful negotiator with proven influencing skills.
• Proven record of successful teamwork and partnership working.

Desirable

• Experience in managing and running events, particularly member meetings or AGMs.
• Experience in or enthusiasm for democratic and inclusive ways of working.

About the Leicester Gazette

The Leicester Gazette is a local, independent newspaper, free to access for all online and soon in print.

We are a member-funded, community-owned news outlet about Leicestershire. We're building on a movement of co-operative media pioneered by West Highlands Free Press, the Bristol Cable, Norwich Radical, Manchester Meteor, the Ferret, and Exeter Observer.

Our mission is to hold those in power accountable, push for change, and amplify the voices of marginalised communities while finding real solutions to the challenges we face.

We publish investigations, news features and human interest stories that go beyond the headlines. Our journalism is fact-based and rigorous, and we prize good writing over clickbait and sensationalism.

Local journalism has been devastated in recent years, with thousands of reporters laid off and newsrooms being stripped of their worth, leaving communities plagued by a jungle of ads and stories that have nothing to do with local issues. The Leicester Gazette is our revolution against a broken industry.

Anti-oppression and liberation

We are committed to creating a progressive, supportive workplace and community. We’d like the way we work to actively challenge the power structures that reproduce inequality and injustice, and consciously choose to work in ways that are liberatory, or anti-oppressive.

We embrace and value the lived experiences of women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, and people from working-class backgrounds.

How to apply

You must be a paid member of the Leicester Gazette to apply for this role. Join here.

Apply by email, applications close at 9am on Tuesday 13 January. Interviews will take place in the week of 19 January.

• Email: info(at)leicester.news

In your email, tell us a bit about your experience, skills and approach which make you suitable for the role. Please do not send CVs or cover letters.

Please refer closely to relevant parts of the person specification in your responses, providing concrete examples of where you demonstrate meeting the criteria where possible, and what you specifically achieved in those cases if relevant.

If you have any enquiries about the role or application process not answered above, please email info(at)leicester.news.