Linkedin editorial expansion: Tech giant to employ nearly 200 journalists

Linkedin is tripling the number of editors it employs in the UK as part of wider growth that will see it employ nearly 200 journalists worldwide.

The Microsoft-owned professional network currently employs three editors in the UK, which is increasing to nine.

Overall Linkedin said it is adding 80 news roles around the world, meaning it will soon have almost 200 editors in total.

For comparison, The Financial Times has 600 journalists worldwide while The Independent has up to 170 in the UK and US.

The additional roles being created at Linkedin in the UK are: daily news editor, careers and jobseeking editor, finance editor, retail editor, tech and innovation editor, and graphic designer/producer.

In the UK, Linkedin said this will mean more in-depth coverage of industries and topics such as Brexit and the UK labour market.

Linkedin’s editorial director for international Sandrine Chauvin said the expansion was “part of our ongoing efforts to bring our members quality, useful journalism” and “gives us the opportunity to provide LinkedIn members in the UK with even better information, analysis and debates on the platform to help them in their working lives”.

The additional roles globally are open in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, in cities such as Amsterdam, Dubai, New York and Sydney, and include journalism and reporting jobs as well as graphic design, video producing and editing, and project management.

Asked what the commercial value for Linkedin of boosting its journalist teams, a spokesperson said: “The global editorial team plays a central part in engaging our professional community: creating original content, curating content from members, creators, and publishers on the platform for our members, and cultivating – encouraging others to start professional conversations on the platform, especially around news.”

Linkedin News launched in 2011 and has been led by ex-Fortune managing editor Daniel Roth from New York ever since.

Its journalists do their own reporting, writing articles and newsletters, producing podcasts and hosting live video interviews with business leaders. They also curate the best content from other publishers – helping them get in front of niche, relevant audiences – to provide a service for Linkedin’s 810 million members.

A Linkedin News tab signposts users to content from the right hand side of the page, while it has region-specific Linkedin News pages.

Editors produce a morning digest of professional news for members called The Daily Rundown, which the platform claimed is “one of the world’s largest business publications” as it reaches 159 million people each day, including 12.5 million in the UK, in 135 countries.

They also put out an evening briefing called The Wrap-Up which summarises the day’s talking points and use data journalism to create lists of, for example, top companies and top start-ups.

Separately Linkedin said last month that global news website Insider had been one of the first publishers to sign up to its pilot newsletter programme and had gained nearly 820,000 subscribers within 24 hours. Linkedin said this was “a testament to the power of the newsletters to quickly grow and engage audiences” and that it will now roll out the programme more widely for publishers and other companies alike.

Topics in this article : LinkedIn