Media Assistant (fixed term)

Closing date: 10:00 Friday 06 June 2025

Interview date: Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 June 2025

Start date: Monday 14 July 2025

End date: Friday 29 August 2025

Location: Based in our central Edinburgh office

Background

The idea at the heart of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is simple: anyone with a desire to perform and a venue willing to host them is welcome. No individual or committee determines who can or cannot perform at the Fringe.

It all began in 1947 with eight companies – six of them from Scotland – taking a risk, turning up uninvited and performing on the ‘fringe’ of the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. Over 75 years later, the Fringe has grown to become one of the greatest platforms for creative freedom in the world, second only to the Olympics in terms of global ticketed events. In 2024, 3,745 shows took place in 296 venues across Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society was founded by artists to nurture and uphold the Fringe's values of inclusivity, experimentation and imagination. We exist to support, advise and encourage everyone who wants to participate in the Fringe, provide information and assistance to audiences, and celebrate the Fringe and what it stands for all over the world.

We are recruiting three Media Assistants who will report to the Media Officer. Leading up to and during the Fringe, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society provides a media centre for journalists and participants. The Fringe is an open access festival, and the Fringe Society is an impartial organisation, therefore the Media Office assists journalists to find what they are looking for without ever recommending or making value judgements about specific shows. The Media Office accredits journalists attending the Fringe and provides a media ticketing service for Fringe shows.

The Media team consists of the Head of Marketing, Communications and Sponsorship, Media Officer, and three Media Assistants.

Role and responsibilities

You will perform a wide range of duties, including but not limited to:

• Ensuring a positive and welcoming experience to visiting media professionals, including being the first point of contact for Media Office enquiries and information requests, processing accreditation and issuing accreditation passes
•  Enabling access to media ticketing for accredited media, processing media ticket requests using the Society’s in-house ticketing system and providing media ticket allocation information to participants
•  Assisting at Media Office events including Meet the Media.
• Managing the Fringe Society Clash Diary, a diary of all key events, launches and photocalls during the Fringe, and maintaining the Clash Diary distribution list.
• Compiling daily media digests using the Society’s media monitoring platform.
•  Logging show reviews on our website, edfringe.com.

Person specification

Essential

• Experience of working in a busy, fast-paced environment, preferably delivering services to the media.
• A creative problem solver who can react effectively to new information.
•  A good working knowledge of Microsoft Office (particularly Excel, Outlook and Teams) and databases.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Good organisational and time management skills.
• Adaptable, with a strong commitment to providing a high level of customer service.
•  Experience of working in a media or customer service focused environment.

Desirable

•  Box office experience.
•  Media or marketing office experience.
•  Knowledge and understanding of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the role the Fringe Society plays within it.
•  Experience of using media monitoring tools such as Gorkana/Cision.

Rate of pay and benefits 

The rate of pay for this post is £12.60 per hour.

Normal working hours are between 10:00 to 18:00 worked over five days between Monday and Friday before the festival, and 8 hours worked between 09:30 and 17:30 over six days during the festival. This includes a one-hour unpaid lunch break per day. Your working hours will be organised according to a rota system which the Society will notify you of in advance of the Fringe.

In the run up to and during the festival you may be required to work additional days and hours. Any additional work will be mutually agreed in advance and will be paid at the standard hourly rate. This role will be based from our Edinburgh offices.

We are a flexible working employer and therefore are happy to discuss flexible working at any stage of the application process.  

We use positive action under section 159 of the Equality Act in relation to disability or race. This means that if we have two candidates of equal merit in our process, we will seek to take forward the D/deaf, disabled, Black, Asian or ethnically diverse candidate in order to diversify our staff team. 

The Fringe have identified six pillars of commitment around the sustainable delivery of their work, are active members of the Festivals Edinburgh Sustainability Working group and include climate action as one of the headline targets in the Fringe development goals. As part of the commitments of this work, all Fringe staff members are expected to assist with the Fringe Society’s environmental goals and consider these in all elements of your work.

We are also committed to maintaining the open-access policy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from all sectors of the community. We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and aim to successfully employ and retain disabled people and those with health conditions. We expect employees to support these commitments and to assist in their realisation.