Communications Assistant (Publicity) 2025

Do you enjoy talking about the best new books with everyone you know? Are you organised, proactive and thrive in busy, fast paced environments? This could be the role for you. We are looking for a Communications Assistant to join our Publicity team at Penguin General.

Penguin General is one of the eight publishing divisions that make up Penguin Random House UK. There are five imprints at Penguin General: Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Life, Viking and Sandycove. Penguin General publish some of the very best storytellers and thinkers in the world, spanning literary fiction classics such as John le Carré and Bernardine Evaristo; non-fiction bestsellers including Ben Macintyre and Michelle Obama; and chart-topping fiction writers such as Richard Osman, Emily Henry and Dolly Alderton. 

Key responsibilities

• To provide general administrative support to the communications team to facilitate the smooth running of the department.
• Organising meetings and taking minutes, producing and sending out press releases, coding invoices and processing expenses, sending out books.
• Acting as a point of contact for the press, and regularly communicating with journalists and authors.
• To provide support to publicists with their campaigns - accompanying authors to interviews and events, organising schedules, travel and accommodation
• This role may involve out of hours work on weekends and evenings in order to attend events and festivals.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria

• Strong personal organisation and time management skills with excellent attention to detail
• Proactive and reactive - ability to multitask and handle competing priorities
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of people on email, phone and in person
• Solutions focussed
• Flexibility and helpfulness
• Taking initiative 
• A strong team player
• The ability to work on your own – and to push yourself
• A positive mind-set
• The ability to think creatively

Disability confident

If you have opted into our disability confident scheme, the above is the essential criteria you must meet to be considered for our interview scheme. Please note, there may be occasions where the volume of applicants means we can’t take all eligible candidates to interview. 

Application instructions

• Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on 30th May 2025.
• Please ensure you include a cover letter, as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.
• Please note we are looking for someone to join the team as soon as possible, but we are also happy to accommodate a reasonable notice period for the right candidate.
• We anticipate a two-stage interview process which will include a virtual first-stage interview and in-person second stage interview. We are happy to discuss this further with you throughout the recruitment process.

What you can expect from us

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.

Hybrid working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect the successful candidate to work from our London-based office a minimum of three days per week and offer two days per week to work remotely.

About Penguin

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.