This new alliance will be branded as Jobstoday Freelance, and will create a freelance marketplace for talented UK professionals working remotely from home.
According to Johnston Press, the partnership will empower Johnston Press’ audience of 25 million people across the UK to work anywhere at any time, and will connect companies with a ‘hidden workforce’ of talented professionals they couldn’t previously access. It will also bring these people into the rapidly growing online freelance market, which is predicted to grow from £2.07bn globally to £32.77bn by 2020.
These plans form part of Johnston Press’ wider digital strategy across all of its brands. The digital and technological shift taking place in the industry is altering the way people work, and enabling a cultural shift towards flexible project-based working. As a result, the partnership will increase Johnston Press’ reach among the rapidly growing number of millennials choosing this new way of working, as well as widen its recruitment customer base to smaller companies looking to hire on an ‘as and when’ basis, say the publishers.
Joe Slavin, Managing Director of Recruitment at Johnston Press said: “Partnering with a startup like weliketowork.com is a great way for us to combine our expanding audience and award-winning local brands with cutting edge software solutions and emerging models in areas like employment. This offering works really well in tandem with our core Jobstoday platform to benefit our readership, as it means we can offer companies and jobseekers alike the widest range of opportunities, to suit the way they wish to work or hire.”
Jonny Dunning, CEO of weliketowork.com, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Johnston Press and its network of trusted newspaper brands to bring our solution to a bigger audience with genuine local reach. This partnership also represents a great step in our mission to support small businesses in the UK, and give talented professionals like stay-at-home mums, dads and retirees the chance to re-join the workforce and earn money via flexible remote working. It’s great to see Johnston Press being so forward-thinking with this partnership, making new opportunities available to their growing audience.”
