News Director

Job Description

Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc has an immediate News Director opening for our stations in Odessa, Texas (DMA #147). In this role, the News Director will have oversight of Nexstar's operations at KMID (ABC) and oversee operational agreements with Mission Broadcasting providing services to KPEJ (Fox) through a JSA and SSA, as well as the station's digital, mobile and social media assets.

The Odessa/Midland market is located in West Texas. The area is famous for its cowboy culture, its oil industry, and Friday Night Lights – a book and film based on one of the region's high school football teams.
Odessa is home to the Presidential Museum and Leadership Library- the only one of its kind in the US. Halliburton, Anthem Oil & Gas, and other large companies have a major presence in the market. This opportunity will allow you adventures in the area and put you in driving distance of more adventures throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico.

The News Director leads and supervises all aspects of news, weather and sports programming production.
• Manages all aspects of the News Department (other than Production)
• 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 rating 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.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-dy9413-3-17-128-129-42 in your application.