Summary
The News Director is the strategic leader and chief editor of WHRO/V’s local and regional journalism operation, overseeing news staff, production, and output of local and regional journalism on all platforms.
Primary Functions
â— News Strategy
â—‹ Works with Chief Content Officer (CCO) and news staff to set strategic priorities and goals for WHRO/V’s news operation, including platform and programming priorities, focus topics and beats, and geographic coverage priorities.
â—‹ Implements the strategic plan for news content.
â— Editorial Integrity and Quality Standards Control
â—‹ Serves as the primary keeper and champion of WHRO/V’s editorial integrity and independence standards, ensures related documents are regularly reviewed and updated and that the standards are regularly discussed, widely understood, and upheld throughout all WHRO/V departments.
â—‹ Serves as primary news editor, with responsibility for ensuring all WHRO/V news content is accurate, ethical, engaging, and in line with the highest standards of professional journalism.
â—‹ Works with Program Director to provide coaching and feedback for on-air news staff.
â— Coverage Planning & Implementation
â—‹ Sets WHRO/V’s news agenda. Plans daily and long-range news coverage on all platforms.
â—‹ Oversees WHRO/V’s local news and public affairs programs.
â—‹ Creates and maintains plans for coverage of crises and breaking news, working with the CCO and other station departments as appropriate.
â—‹ Makes reporting and producing assignments.
â— Community Engagement
â—‹ Works with the Director of Community Engagement, and other relevant staff to solicit and reflect community input on news coverage priorities.
â—‹ Creates opportunities for the community to engage with news content, virtually and in person.
â— Collaboration
â—‹ Works with staff in all relevant WHRO/V departments, including Community Engagement, Digital Strategies, Television Production, WHRO Classical, Marketing, and Development to leverage existing staff skills and to coordinate with station projects.
â—‹ Works with relevant staff to identify and build news-related partnerships and collaborations with other media and/or with community organizations. Oversees and/or directly manages WHRO/V’s participation in such collaborations.
â—‹ Collaborates with NPR and other national public media outlets on news coverage as appropriate.
â— Management and Administration
â—‹ Manages news department staff, including providing regular feedback and performance reviews.
â—‹ Recruits for news positions and makes recommendations to CCO on personnel decisions including hiring and firing.
â—‹ Works with CCO to create news department budget; manages budget throughout the year.
â— Other Duties
â—‹ Fills in for hosts and other news department staff as needed.
â—‹ Other duties as assigned
Required Qualifications
â— At least seven years of professional journalism experience and deep knowledge of the ethics and practices of journalism.
â— At least five years of editorial experience, with at least three years in news management or applicable expertise.
â— Experience editing enterprise, in-depth, long-form journalism on radio and digital platforms
â— Deep understanding of the purposes and mission of public media; public media journalism experience highly desirable
â— Understanding of digital platforms as crucial and coequal with broadcast platforms
â— Familiarity with trends in emerging media and community engagement as they relate to journalism
â— Experience working across department lines in an organization
Preferred Qualifications
â— Knowledge of Virginia/Eastern Virginia community and issues
â— Experience in digital journalism content creation
â— Experience and/or knowledge of video production
â— Experience with news-related community engagement initiatives
â— Experience with news-related live events
â— Experience leading organizational culture change
Competencies
â— Strong, ethical news judgement
â— Excellent leadership, communication, and collaboration skills
â— Organizational and problem-solving skills
WHRO is an equal opportunity employer.
We take great pride in our diverse and talented workforce. We recognize that our continued success depends largely on the collective strengths of our employees. Developing the right mix of skills, ideas and individuals requires an unwavering commitment to Equal Employment Opportunity and FCC compliance. Accordingly, we recruit, hire, train and promote persons in all job titles and ensure that all other personnel actions are administered without regard to an employee's race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, citizenship, veteran status or disability.
