What are the responsibilities and job description for the Capital News Service Bureau Director position at University of Maryland?
Capital News Service Bureau Director
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The University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism seeks a director for one of its Capital News Service bureaus — either in Annapolis or Washington. Reporters, editors and educators with experience teaching, editing or mentoring student journalists or young reporters are encouraged to apply. This is a nine-month, non-tenure track renewable lecturer position to start no later than January 2026.
Capital News Service is a student-powered news organization run by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. For more than three decades, it has provided deeply reported, award-winning coverage of issues important to Maryland citizens. The students in Capital News Service come from Merrill’s undergraduate and master’s programs and work in Washington, Annapolis and College Park. The successful candidate must have excellent reporting and writing skills, strong news judgment and a passion for encouraging and developing the confidence and talent of young journalists. Students under the direction of this faculty member, and in collaboration with other faculty members, produce news on a variety of platforms and in real time for a destination website and for several dozen client news organizations throughout Maryland, Washington, Delaware and Virginia. Those clients include The Associated Press and The Washington Post, local broadcast stations and their websites, and several national news outlets. The students’ work often appears in outlets across the country and in other parts of the world, as well.
The students in Annapolis and Washington work as part of a college-run news operation that includes other CNS bureaus (broadcast; data and design; audience and social media), the Local News Network, the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and several specialized capstone courses.
The successful candidate must be comfortable participating in, and leading, collaborative journalism teams. They should be eager to teach today’s journalism students with an eye toward the innovations needed to sustain the field in the future.
Students under the direction of this editor, and other editors, will:
- Prepare for the journalism jobs available today while experimenting with the reporting and storytelling methods that might be the profession’s future
- Report and write stories (daily and enterprise) for the CNS website and CNS clients that help audiences better understand the world and their community.
- Interview and develop human sources and use data journalism techniques to tell deeply reported stories.
- Use social media to understand audience questions and tell stories that seek to answer them.
- Shoot and edit photos, audio and video.
- Create basic data visualizations to go with stories (charts, maps, graphics).
Minimum Qualifications: A bachelor’s degree. Experience as a multimedia reporter and/or editor. Experience with basic data journalism techniques.
Preferences: At least eight years of experience as a reporter, editor or journalism educator covering local, state or national news. A master’s degree is preferred. Knowledge of the state and/or federal government workings.
For best consideration, please include a cover letter, resume and list of three references.
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