What are the responsibilities and job description for the News Director position at MediaCo Holding Inc?
Rincon Broadcasting Group is seeking an experienced, innovative News Director to lead our regional news operation, Tri-State Trusted, which includes both KTVO-TV, the ABC and CBS affiliate in Kirksville, MO and KHQA-TV, the ABC and CBS affiliate in Quincy, IL.
The News Director will be a strategic, future-focused leader responsible for driving Tri-State Trusted’s vision across broadcast, digital, streaming, social, and other emerging platforms. The News Director will champion Tri-State Trusted’s commitment to serving the local audiences in the Kirksville and Quincy areas by putting the community first and producing journalism that empowers the people we serve. We are looking for a competitive newsroom leader with strong editorial judgment, a passion for local journalism, and the ability to build, coach and inspire high-performing teams.
The News Director must be passionate about developing talent, maintaining and growing audience trust, creating a team culture, and building a newsroom that is urgent, accurate, ethical, creative, and deeply connected to the local community.
Responsibilities:
- Lead the execution of Tri-State Trusted’s news brand across broadcast, digital, streaming, and social platforms.
- Set the editorial vision and daily coverage strategy for the newsroom, with a focus on urgent, impactful local journalism.
- Grow storytelling and audience engagement across broadcast, digital, mobile, OTT/streaming, and social media platforms.
- Recruit, coach, mentor and retain a strong, competitive and collaborative news and production team.
- Create and execute innovative systems and strong standards for communication, content planning, storytelling, editorial decisions, workflows and production.
- Use audience data, analytics, and market research to guide coverage decisions, identify growth opportunities, and improve performance across platforms.
- Consistently monitor Tri-State Trusted content across all platforms and provide regular, constructive feedback to the team.
- Champion strong writing, compelling storytelling, live coverage, breaking news execution, severe weather coverage, and enterprise journalism.
- Maintain high editorial, ethical, and legal standards.
- Lead newsroom planning for major events, elections, breaking news, severe weather, community coverage, and special projects.
- Partner with station leadership, the marketing team, the sales team, the digital team, and the production team to support station goals.
- Manage the KTVO and KHQA news/production budget, staffing and schedules, and operational priorities.
- Create and implement workflow improvements, including use of technology and AI-assisted tools where appropriate, to strengthen journalism, efficiency, community commitment, and team performance.
- Provide clear strategy, direction, goals, and timelines for Tri-State Trusted’s news operation, and build systems to ensure those goals are met.
Qualifications:
- 4 years as a newsroom manager in a broadcast and digital environment
- Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communications or related field preferred; or equivalent experience
- Proven record of leadership
- Strong communication, delegation and problem-solving skills
- Strategic thinking
Rincon Broadcasting Group is an innovative media company serving our communities through breaking news, impactful investigative reporting and innovative multi-screen marketing services.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Salary : $75,000 - $80,000