News Director

Duties

• Stays on alert for stories to assign to the staff or give reporters story leads and contacts.
• Confers with the program director on what topics are appropriate to pursue and has a close working relationship with the traffic department.
• May take the lead on reporting certain stories; builds news sources and contacts.
• Oversees the creation and production of news specials and documentaries.
• Teams with sales and promotions to identify non-traditional sources of revenue.
• Hire and train news staff; performs performance reviews and provides mentoring.

Qualifications

• Management experience.
• Strong writing and editing skills.

Experience level

• Bachelor's degree in areas such as journalism or mass communications, as well as three to four years of job-related experience.

Stations with a big focus on news as part of the programming hook have a news director to lead the team of reporters tasked with keeping the community updated on breaking news and stories of significance. The news director is plugged into a variety of news sources, from local, national and international newspapers and television feeds to monitoring the wire services and police scanners.