The Reuters Institute is seeking a new lead author for the Digital News Report

The Reuters Institute is seeking a new lead author for the Digital News Report, the most comprehensive study of news consumption worldwide. The successful candidate will support the current author, Nic Newman, through this year's process before taking the lead role in autumn 2025.

The report provides independent, rigorous analysis that addresses issues important for journalists. It does so in an accessible and timely way while working to the standards of contemporary social science. The report is a collaborative project involving an Oxford-based team of academic researchers, country partners across the world, and a diverse group of funders who support the work. 

What we need from the new lead author

We expect the new lead author to keep developing the vision, scope, and substance of the report in close collaboration with senior colleagues at the Institute. He or she will do so in collaboration with the research team and his/her responsibilities will include questionnaire design, question testing, and decisions about including supplementary research and other sources of data. 

The new lead author will be expected to manage the project year-round, working with dedicated researchers at the Institute, country partners across the world, and market research partners. He or she will also work in disseminating the report and its findings through public presentations at conferences, private presentations, interviews, and articles. The lead author will also be expected to respond to a wide range of correspondence about the report throughout the year in association with our research team. 

The lead author must have:

• An understanding of the current and future issues facing professional journalists and news media and the ability to translate these into questions that can be addressed in the research. 
• The ability to assimilate and analyse large amounts of quantitative data to identify patterns, significant relationships, and important dynamics. 
• The ability to write clearly and concisely for a core audience of journalists, editors, and news media executives to convey complex findings and capture nuance and difference across different countries and cases. 
• An international outlook and appreciation of the very different countries, contexts, and kinds of news media covered in the report. 
• Experience of managing complex projects and teams on a tight timeline. 
• A commitment to pursue the work with integrity, independence, and freedom from bias, foregrounding data and analysis rather than opinion, and work in accordance with the University of Oxford’s Code of practice and procedure on academic integrity in research. 
• Experience with and ability to handle feedback on a high-profile and high-stakes piece of practically important research, both privately and publicly. 

Key things to keep in mind

This is a consultancy contract, not an employed role, so anyone interested needs to be self-employed (or be willing to become so). We are looking for an individual, not an agency. Because the role requires frequent participation in meetings and events in Oxford, it is essential that any applicants currently have the right to work in – and be based in – the UK. 

How to express an interest

If you are interested in being the new lead author of the Digital News Report, please send an email to reuters.institute@politics.ox.ac.uk. The email should be addressed to our Director of Research, Dr Richard Fletcher, and should include a short CV (two pages maximum) and an expression of interest briefly outlining what themes they would like to see covered by the Digital News Report in the coming years and how they would approach addressing those themes in the project. The deadline to send this preliminary email is Tuesday 10 December 2024. 

What’s the timeline for the process?

Our team will review these initial expressions of interest before the end of the year. Then it will invite full proposals from a selected number of consultants before the end of January 2025. A selection panel will evaluate those proposals separately and will interview a shortlist of consultants before making a final decision. We are aiming to have the appointment in place in April, ahead of the launch of the 2025 report in June.

A final note from the Institute

The next edition of the report will be the last one led by Nic Newman. Under David Levy’s leadership, Nic launched the report in 2012 and was instrumental in transforming it into an incredible resource for editors, media managers and academic researchers around the world. As a Senior Research Associate, Nic will keep working with us after the Digital News Report 2025 is published, authoring the annual Trends and Predictions report and other projects.