News Director

Job Description

WMBD/WYZZ-TV is searching for a forward thinking journalist for the position of News Director for their Peoria-Bloomington location.

Located in central Illinois, Peoria is midway between Chicago and St. Louis. Through leading local medical institutions, companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Bradley University in Peoria and Illinois State University in Bloomington, significant education, science and arts advancements have been made through various community alliances in Peoria. Hosting a large manufacturing and agriculture community that is home to the international headquarters for Caterpillar and State Farm Insurance, Peoria and Bloomington are dynamic Midwestern communities known for their values, popular lifestyle, and ease of travel to major metropolitan areas and wonderful communities in which to work and live.

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 10 years' experience in news programming production, with at least 5 years' experience in a leadership role.
• 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.
.• Ability to effectively listen to fully understand employee needs and communicate with a team to shape a solution.
• Proficiency with computers, telephones, copiers, scanners, fax machines and other office equipment.
• Ability to meet deadlines, prioritize assignments and handle multiple tasks simultaneously.

Prior experience with on-line and social media is required.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-rjp0y1-3-15-6-77-42 in your application.