The sun is coming up on 2012 and it looks to be an exciting year for Blog Preston - and we'd like you to be involved

Do you want to help play a part in one of the UK’s leading local community news websites?

If so, we’re looking for a co-editor to join our team.

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Blog Preston was established in 2009 and has been serving the community of the city of Preston ever since, providing local news, features, information and views. It also won the award for the UK’s best hyperlocal news website in 2011 – awarded by Talk About Local and The Guardian.

We’ve clocked up over 1,000 posts offering an insightful, often live and challenging look on life in the North West’s third city.

If you’d like the chance to report on what happens in our great city then we’d like you to get involved. We’re looking for someone with a nose for a story, who doesn’t mind staring at council documents until they are blue in the face and has the enthusiasm to take a digital camera and capture great moments at events across the city.

You’ll be working on commissioning guest posts from the people of Preston, working with them to provide the best quality content we can – everyone from mothers visiting museums to the leader of the council have written for Blog Preston in the past.

This year is an exciting year to be in Preston as you’ll be leading our coverage of the 2012 Preston Guild, making sure the site reflects the exciting range of events and traditions which will take place.

And the point of it all? To ensure over 10,000 readers a month (and growing!) get their online fix of all things Preston.

You’ll be working alongside our award-winning co-editor Joseph Stashko (Guardian Student Media Awards digital journalist of the year 2011) for your first few months before taking the reins, and receive guidance and training from Ed Walker, who founded the site and now works for Trinity Mirror across their regional newspaper websites. Blog Preston is a great place to learn about the city, reporting and finding out about your local community.

This is a voluntary role and will be what you make of it.

Here’s what a former co-editor, Andy Halls, who now works as a trainee reporter for The Sun, has to say about his time working on Blog Preston:

“My involvement with Blog Preston was one of the defining activities of my time in the city. It helped me learn about the place I was living, appreciate the surroundings – as well as teach me invaluable skills for my future career.

“The experience taught me to make my own luck, find my own stories and use my own initiative. In just a year running the site, I learned more in practical skills than I could ever hope to get from a journalism degree.

“Having it on my CV helped me get to where I am today – working for the UK’s best-selling newspaper – and even now I revisit skills and experiences I learned while plodding around the streets of Preston.”

We’re not just looking for journalism students, we’re looking for anyone who has a passion for keeping the city informed and can use English well.

If you’re interested, send us 200 words about why you love Preston to contactus@blogpreston.co.uk. Please include your mobile number and a little bit about yourself.

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We’re also looking for contributors who would like to write about the city, it can be on anything – from the parks, local sport or through to what’s happening in your area.

If you’d like to get involved in writing for us, just email contactus@blogpreston.co.uk

Image credit to Tony Worrall

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