News Director - KIRO TV
About The Position
Cox Media Group in Seattle WA is seeking a strategic, innovative, team-oriented, and passionate journalist to lead KIRO 7’s news team as our News Director. KIRO 7 News is a well-respected organization driven by aggressive breaking news coverage, award-winning investigative storytelling, cutting edge producing, and our experienced and trusted KIRO 7 Pinpoint Weather team. This opportunity is 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. We are looking for a compassionate and empathic leader who is committed to coaching and developing the KIRO 7 News team to excellence every day. KIRO 7’s News Director will be a dynamic, forward-thinking leader with excellent news judgment to oversee all aspects of our daily news across 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 Vice President/General Manager of KIRO 7, 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 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 KIRO 7 News Director will value the talents and experience of our team and will cultivate an environment of inclusive idea generation and problem solving. KIRO 7 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.
Requirements
- 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
- A minimum of 5 years television newsroom leadership experience is required, with previous news director experience preferred
Nice To Haves
- Bachelor’s Degree required (Journalism, English or Communications preferred)
Responsibilities
- 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 analyze brand and audience research across platforms to drive opportunities audience engagement and audience growth.
- Financial accountability for managing the newsroom budget, working closely with KIRO 7 News leadership 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.
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance available to the employee and employee’s family (i.e. child, spouse, domestic partner).
- Flexible Spending Accounts (healthcare and dependent care) and Health Savings Accounts
- Short-term and long-term disability and life insurance (supplemental and accidental, death, and dismemberment)
- Participation in CMG’s 401(k) plan with generous company match and both pre-tax and Roth options
- Paid flexible vacation and up to four weeks (160 hours) of paid wellness time, inclusive of paid sick and safe time under applicable law.
- Up to eight (8) paid holidays throughout calendar year 2026
- Up to two (2) weeks of paid parental leave
- Employee assistance program
- All other benefits required by applicable law.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
Number of Employees
1-10 employees
