Assistant News Director

Job Description

Assistant News Director, WFTX

WFTX Fox 4 in Ft Myers-Cape Coral-Naples has an immediate opening for a dynamic Assistant News Director. We're looking for a competitive and energized individual who values impactful local journalism, accomplishing great things with a motivated, high-performing team, and an environment where leadership matters.

Here's why this will be a terrific job. First: ''Florida.'' The state's news markets have a lot of news, some of which regularly garners national headlines, plus an annual hurricane season where the public depends on you and your team to keep them safe --- working in a Florida market can be a valuable experience for a committed journalist. You'll lead the newsroom in partnership with an exceptional Executive Reporter and a Station Manager/News Director, with the potential to take on a wide variety of responsibilities --- you'll get to do and try a lot in a short amount of time. No two days are the same. Your focus will be on leading the execution of quality video journalism, showcasing content for linear TV, and creatively distributing it on multiple platforms, giving viewers a trustworthy and value-laden viewing experience that improves brand loyalty and drives audience engagement. The best candidates for this role have considerable producing or EP experience, especially in a market with a fast-paced, high-volume news cycle.

You already love the business of local news, for all its challenges – in fact, you thrive on a good challenge. Under pressure you can use your dependable editorial judgement to make clear and calm decisions, and you can innovate solutions to problems rapidly and well. You aren't afraid to do things differently, but you also know when to deploy methods that are tried and true. You know different a variety of approaches to follow up on performance and productively hold people accountable. And you enjoy a team environment, both leading teams, and working on them. You also know the strategies of local news well and have led projects or developed techniques that successfully increased audience on both linear and digital platforms. You can inspire and coach others to deliver the newsroom's strategy and brand with consistency. You consider yourself a heck of a conversational writer and copyeditor. And you are comfortable around multiple newsroom technologies and can learn new tech rapidly.

Hungry for experiences? We got 'em. Looking for smart, driven collaborators who have your back? Got 'em. Competitive pay? Got it. Is it kinda' cool that it never snows here, there's plenty of sunshine, and yeah, there might be some fantastic beaches a short drive away? Yup, we've got it all….except you!

WHAT YOU'LL DO:
• Assist News Director with supervisory responsibility for all news broadcasts and online content.
• Involved in hiring and performance management of direct reports.
• Assist News Director in the on-going evaluation of personnel.
• Create tactics and strategies to increase ratings performance in key target areas for multiple platforms.
• Assist in execution of news content strategy.
• Implement and have working knowledge of federal, state and local laws impacting operations.
• Ability to manage cross platform content creation and distribution.
• Write copy and edit scripts for air and web.
• Knowledge of and proficiency in posting content to station websites.
• Schedule anchors and multi-media journalists.
• Lead coverage planning of major events, i. e. elections, special events.
• Proactively communicate news initiatives & community efforts across departments.
• Evaluate workflow efficiencies.
• Assist News Director in managing the budgetary aspects of newsroom operations.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
• College degree in related field or equivalent experience preferred.
• At least 5 years supervisory experience preferred.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING:
• Advanced oral and written communication skills.
• Advanced computer skills including Microsoft Office.
• Broad understanding of newsroom operations and equipment.
• Proven ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast paced environment.
• Positive reinforcement style of management with the ability to hold staffers accountable while helping them to grow their skills.

If you are a current Scripps employee, please do not apply on this site. Please access our internal career site at Worklife > My Info > View Open Positions at Scripps.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g3q55q-18-118-120-109-42 in your application.