Job Description

Location: FL-Orlando-South

Job Title: News Director - WFTV Orlando

Position Overview

We are seeking a strategic, innovative, team-oriented, and passionate journalist to lead WFTV’s news team as our News Director.

WFTV is a well-respected organization driven by aggressive breaking news coverage, award-winning investigative storytelling, cutting edge producing, and our experienced and trusted Severe Weather Team 9. This is a rare opportunity for a leader who possesses a passion for local news along with the highest standards for producing unbiased and impactful reporting for our audience. Our ideal candidate will be an experienced, hands-on leader, with a vision and mission to serve the needs of our viewers while fueling the passion and professional development of our news team. The CMG culture is based on the idea that we compete with our products, but we win with our people. We are looking for a compassionate and empathetic leader who is committed to coaching the team to excellence every day.
WFTV’s next News Director will be a dynamic, forward-thinking leader with excellent news judgment to oversee all aspects of our daily TV news on all platforms. This individual will have the unique opportunity to lead our experienced team in the execution of exceptional newscasts and digital content across multiple platforms – while having a willingness to innovate and explore new ways to attract new audiences to all platforms. 

Reporting to the General Manager, qualified applicants will have a proven record with executing research action plans, breaking news, investigative and enterprise reporting, and the delivery of successful digital products. Candidates must be collaborative partners, working closely with other department leaders on innovative engineering opportunities that will advance newscast delivery, marketing and research strategies that will strengthen brands and grow our strong market position as well as innovative sales initiatives to help meet revenue goals. They will also have demonstrated leadership and skills in managing, developing, recruiting, and retaining talent. Candidates must have a strategic understanding of how broadcast, digital, radio and social can complement each other and can drive execution to achieve goals while maintaining high editorial standards.

The WFTV News Director will value the talents and experience of our team and will cultivate an environment of inclusive idea generation and problem solving. Eyewitness News has a long tradition of winning audience loyalty by presenting our communities’ stories based on their human experience, and we’re seeking the next great leader to continue our successes and take us to the next level. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• By leveraging your deep experience in TV newsrooms, you will provide strategic and tactical direction for day-to-day multi-platform news coverage, breaking news, special projects, investigative reporting, special event coverage.
• Create and drive strategies to augment and align digital and on-air staffs to grow both the digital platforms and reinforce and grow on-air ratings.
• Ensure that the news managers and team members have absolute clarity of goals and expectations to consistently pursue excellence and drive quality results.
• Leverage the Cox Custom Research team and other resources to develop strong action plans and execution accountability. 
• Lead by example in seeking out diverse voices and perspectives in newscasts by encouraging the team to provide a full spectrum of thought around social and other issues when pitching and storytelling.
• Strong servant leadership and collaboration skills to communicate and live our mission and vision around delivering the highest quality news, information, and investigations.
• Lead and drive digital competency across the greater organization to help support efforts to increase quality content, broadcast brand engagement and digital audience.
• The ability to operationalize brand and audience research across platforms to drive opportunities for growth.
• Financial accountability for managing the newsroom budget, working with your team and our finance department to allocate resources and negotiate competitively with vendors and contract employees.
• Strong ability to grow people through feedback and performance management and internal training opportunities.
• Understanding of how to leverage value from external consultants and internal resources to accelerate desired results.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree required (Journalism, English or Communications preferred).
• Must have a minimum of 5 years of management experience in a broadcast newsroom.
• 5 to 8 years of leadership experience managing medium to large dynamic teams.
• Excellent communication, organization, judgement and writing skills. 
• Strong understanding and experience in managing digital media brands.
• Strong networking and community engagement skills. 
• Must have a valid driver’s license and clean driving record.

About Cox Media Group
CMG Media Corporation (d/b/a Cox Media Group) is an industry-leading media company with unparalleled brands, award-winning content, and exceptional team members. CMG provides valuable local and national journalism and entertainment content to the people and communities it serves. The company's businesses encompass 14 high-quality, market-leading television brands in 9 markets; 49 top-performing radio stations delivering multiple genres of content in 10 markets; and numerous streaming and digital platforms. CMG's TV portfolio includes multiple primary affiliates of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo and MyNetworkTV, as well as several valuable news and independent stations. For more information about CMG, visit 

Req #: 1739 #LI-Onsite

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