JPN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER- RECRUITMENT PACK

(This is the page for the Communications Manager position. For details of the Network Manager position please click here.)


The Jazz Promotion Network (JPN) was established in 2015 as a membership organisation to provide support for the jazz sector across the UK and Ireland. Membership is open to promoters, managers, agents, labels, journalists, educationalists and musicians. We currently have approximately 100 members (organisations and individuals) and hope to increase this by around 20 every year. We are a registered charity and our work is overseen by a Board, elected by the membership, including experienced jazz festival directors, educationalists, musicians, producers and consultants. 

Our core aims are as follows:

  • Create collaborations which will build audiences for jazz and related music 
  • Support the development of skills and opportunities for artists and promoters 
  • Encourage and enable partnerships and communications between members 
  • Facilitate and enable collaborations, partnerships and communications with other organisations in the UK & Ireland and internationally
  • Support and connect with education and participation activity in jazz at all levels
  • Contribute to advocacy and awareness of jazz music
  • Help foster growth and new thinking in the jazz ecology 

We already have a track record of delivering several successful annual conferences and a highly effective international partnership with Dutch Performing Arts called ‘Going Dutch’. With recent confirmation of project funding from Arts Council England we can now move ahead with a major programme of training and other activities across the UK and beyond from April 2020-June 2021, open both to JPN members and to others from the sector.  

The programme will include:

  • The JPN 2020 annual conference ‘Reach Out’ – to be held in Belfast from June 25-26, 2020; including showcases, keynote speakers and some topic-specific training delivered by our partners at The Hub
  • JPN partnership in a UK/Irish stand at jazzahead! 2020 in Bremen, with bursaries available for selected jazz musicians and promoters
  • A ‘workforce placement’ scheme for six jazz promoters wishing to experience and learn from another venue/festival/jazz support organisation
  • Six one day training sessions over the period, on topics requested at our 2019 Conference, such as business planning, sponsorship, using audience data and more, run in collaboration with Jazz North, Jazz South and others
  • An ‘action-learning’ project run in collaboration with Jazz South bringing together jazz promoters from across the South of England
  • Training sessions run in collaboration with Attitude is Everything on making our events accessible both for audience members and musicians with disabilities
  • Working with one jazz festival and one venue towards achieving AiE’s Charter of Best Practice, and using these as case studies for the sector as a whole
  • A one day ‘Open Space’ event open to all, to brainstorm ideas for future conferences and events
  • A Creative Lab run in collaboration with Birmingham City University bringing together jazz musicians and promoters with technical experts to experiment with ideas about the future of presenting jazz in performance
  • Participation in a jazz audience research project to be run by Birmingham City University in collaboration with other universities across the UK and Ireland 

The programme includes the appointment of two new part-time freelance staff- a Network Manager and a Communications Manager- the details of the latter  post are below. 

JPN is an Equal Opportunities employer and is committed to equality and diversity within our Board, membership and workforce. 

(This is the page for the Communications Manager position. For details of the Network Manager position please click here.)

JPN COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER.

Reporting: this post will report to the JPN Network Manager.

Duties include:

  • Developing the JPN marketing and communications strategy in collaboration with the JPN board
  • Proactively developing and maintaining the JPN website, including creation of member pages and content generation strategy
  • Scheduling, creating and posting/sending 12 monthly JPN member newsletters, seeking content from the JPN board, JPN members and others as appropriate, working with the Network Manager on a system for encouraging/identifying  contributions. Monitoring engagement and adjusting strategy if required
  • Running JPN’s social media (Facebook & Twitter profiles, members Facebook group), generating content in line with strategy and monitoring engagement
  • Creating and delivering the marketing/PR plan for all activities within the Workforce Development Project, including but not limited to:
  • Producing artwork to promote events
  • Social media advertising
  • Creation of print and other collateral
  • Writing and issuing media releases- promoting JPN both to jazz/music and mainstream media 
  • Updating JPN website and social media with event listings and news
  • Submitting updates to EJN (Europe Jazz Network) newsletter and similar 
  • Liaising with branding consultant on potential rebranding exercise; and then, following rebrand consultancy, rolling out any future changes to JPN branding
  • Management of marketing budget in conjunction with Network Manager. 
  • Attending major events (eg the JPN conference) to handle media coverage/presence and ensure coverage of the event on social media etc 

This list is not exhaustive and the post holder may be asked to carry out other relevant tasks as deemed necessary by the Board.

Experience and skills required:

Essential:

  • Proven experience in work across marketing and PR in similar fields
  • Interest in jazz in UK and beyond (if not a specialist, readiness and enthusiasm to learn)
  • Ability to work unsupervised and on own initiative, but also experience of working as a member of a team
  • Able to provide and maintain a positive and welcoming image as the key point of contact for the organisation, and to be an advocate for jazz in general 

Desirable:

  • Knowledge of jazz and music media contacts in the UK and Ireland 

Remuneration/terms of employment:

This post is offered on a freelance basis with the post-holder expected to work from home or another location of the individual’s choosing. We estimate that the work involved can be done on an average of 1.5 days working days per week.  The fee payable for the 15-month appointment is £9,000 based on a FTE fee of £24,000 p.a. This therefore equates to a fee of £600 a month. Payment will be made monthly on production of invoices, and agreed out of pocket expenses for attending meetings etc. will be reimbursed on production of receipts. 

This role carries a 3-month review. 

(This is the page for the Communications Manager position. For details of the Network Manager position please click here.)

  • Closing date for applications February 29, 2020.  Interviews will be held on Wednesday March 11 in London.