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News Director

WHNT/WHDF - North Alabama’s News Leader is looking for our next News Director, after our current one was promoted within the company. News 19 is the #1 one rated station in the Huntsville market-DMA 76, producing more than 50 hours of award-winning news each week.

As our next News Director, you will be hands-on with our news coverage each day, leading and guiding a hardworking team of journalists. You will develop the strategy for our newsroom to drive audience growth on all our market-leading platforms.

Huntsville is nestled at the foothills of the Appalachians between Birmingham and Nashville, and is the fastest growing metro area in Alabama, and the cost and quality of living is unmatched in the Southeast. It’s nicknamed Rocket City and is home to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, along with military and defense contractors.

The News Director leads and supervises all aspects of news, weather and sports programming production.

• Manages all aspects of the News Department, including our Production Department.

• Plans and manages staffing, training, and performance evaluations for the News Department.

• Makes decisions regarding hiring, evaluation, promotion and termination of employees.

• Develops news coverage strategy for the station and its website.

• Critiques newscasts daily to correct errors, improve coverage and provide mentoring feedback to news staff.

• Assigns projects to staff and verifies that deadlines are being met.

• Ensures achievement of viewer impression goals.

• Determines programming and evaluation of equipment needs to produce quality programming.

• Responds to coverage questions.

• Works with other senior station leaders to establish and reach station goals.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements & Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and work-related experience.

• Fluency in English.

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.

• Minimum five years’ experience in news programming production, with at least two years’ experience in a leadership role. (More or less depending on market size.)

• Experience guiding, directing and motivating subordinates, including setting performance standards and monitoring performance.

• Experience establishing long-range objectives and specifying the strategies and actions to achieve them.

• Ability to identify the developmental needs of others and to coach, mentor or otherwise help others to improve their knowledge or skills.

• Experience preparing and maintaining departmental budgets.

• Proficiency with computers, telephones, copiers, scanners, fax machines and other office equipment.

• Ability to meet deadlines, prioritize assignments and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

• Ability to effectively listen to fully understand employee needs and communicate with a team to shape a solution