Associate Programming Editor (UK)
The Athletic
London, UK
Posted on May 27, 2026
About Us
Powered by one of the largest global newsrooms in sports media, The Athletic brings sports fans the most comprehensive stories about the teams, sports and athletes they love. The Athletic’s newsroom of 450+ full-time staff delivers in-depth coverage of hundreds of professional and college teams across more than 47 North American markets and all 20 football clubs in the English Premier League, as well as many Championship clubs.
About the Role
The Athletic is looking for passionate sports fan with copywriting proficiency and an eye for great content to join our team as a Programming Associate. In this fast-paced role, you’ll be responsible for curation, packaging and distribution of original content across various channels including, but not limited to, The Athletic web home page, app feeds, push alerts, newsletters and The New York Times. The Programming Associate will be an expert on content produced by our staff of 400+ UK and U.S. journalists, be able to flourish in a fast-paced environment, and be expected to assist on high-level projects around our content distribution strategies. This role is on a fixed-term contract beginning May 25th 2026 until July 24th 2026 and will be hybrid, based in our central London office, and involves early morning, late evening and weekend shifts.
Responsibilities
- Execute content programming and distribution strategy, including curation and distribution of articles, podcasts, and video.
- Identify highly engaging content from across our newsroom to broaden The Athletic’s reach to subscriber and potential subscriber audiences.
- Serve as the curation expert across the The Athletic homepage, league pages and app in real-time.
- Write and send daily push alert notifications for team and league followers.
- Develop copy that advances The Athletic’s voice and targets relevant audiences based on the platform and its user experience.
- Monitor real-time analytics to inform curation and homepage strategy.
- Assist in planning and strategizing multi-channel campaigns around priority content and key events.
- Communicate with editors from across the newsroom to proactively identify high-performing content, plan programming strategy across channels, and provide quantitative and qualitative feedback on content performance.
Requirements
- 1-3 years experience in journalism/media, content programming, digital marketing, social media or similar (sports media preferred) .
- Experience writing headlines and homepage packaging with a strong eye for detail.
- Data-driven and analytical; ability to think critically around metrics.
- Extensive knowledge of football both in the UK and abroad.
- Strong understanding of The Athletic, its subscribers and the larger sports media space.
- High-quality news judgment with the ability to identify the biggest stories of the day and how they relate to the larger news cycle.
- Clear communicator and can disseminate information concisely to various stakeholder groups.
The Athletic offers unique perks and benefits to all full-time employees based on their country of residence. Our UK benefits packages offer benefits and perks, competitive to the local market.
The Athletic Media Company is an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically encourages people from all backgrounds and experiences to apply. The Athletic will consider all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
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