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Director of News Programming

The Association of Minnesota Public Educational Radio Stations (AMPERS), the largest association of its kind in the nation, is seeking an experienced, highly organized, energetic, motivational, and creative Director of News Programming. The qualified candidate will help to launch and manage the day‐to‐day operations of our new diverse news initiative. In addition, the individual will oversee the day‐to‐day operations of the award‐winning Minnesota Native News team as well as any other news products AMPERS develops. Currently, this position is funded through July of 2026. We anticipate getting an extension through July of 2027 and raising the funds needed to support the position well into the future.

Duties will include:

  1. Launching and overseeing the five‐minute daily newscasts for our diverse news initiative.
  2. Overseeing the production and distribution of the weekly five‐minute Minnesota Native News segments.
  3. Recruiting, coaching, training, and supervising all news reporters/producers.
  4. Producing newscasts and/or segments within the newscasts (initially estimated to be two to three five‐minute newscasts per week).
  5. Helping to create an onboarding curriculum, newsroom training handbook, and style guide.
  6. Training and motivating reporters/producers to deliver the best programs and segments possible.
  7. Creating a positive, educational, and inspirational environment.
  8. Working to ensure all programs and segments are meaningful, relevant, and interesting to our listeners and ensuring they represent the diversity of our audiences and our state.
  9. Ensuring all content is accurate and meets FCC requirements, and community standards, as well as libel, slander, and copyright laws.
  10. Ensuring every program and segment meets the high quality and standards set by the organization, including but not limited to the quality of the writing, sound, and delivery.
  11. Working with leaders of diverse communities to ensure the programs and segments are representative of and relevant to their communities.
  12. Overseeing the distribution of the news products to the AMPERS stations.
  13. Communicating progress to AMPERS’ Vice President of Programming.
  14. Additional duties as assigned by the Vice President of Programming or CEO.

Preferred Experience and Skills:

  1. Three to five years of experience working in the broadcast news field.
  2. One year of experience supervising and coaching others.
  3. Excellent writing, communication, and coaching skills.
  4. Extensive experience writing and editing broadcast news scripts.
  5. Extensive experience with audio editing.
  6. Working connections within and/or experience working with diverse communities.

Work Environment

  1. 100% Remote (but work must be conducted within the state of Minnesota).
  2. Family‐friendly environment.
  3. Strong commitment to diversity (AMPERS is and has been Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities for decades).

Supervising the Position

  1. Candidate will report directly to the Vice President of Programming.

Commitment to Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equal Employment

  1. AMPERS strongly encourages women, people of color, Native Americans, LGBTQIA2S+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign‐born residents, and Veterans to apply. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, veteran status, medical condition, national origin or ancestry, or any protected category prohibited by state and federal laws.

Compensation

  1. Salary range starts at $80,000. An increase in starting salary will be based on work and educational experience.
  2. Very strong medical and dental benefits with 100% of your premium paid by AMPERS.
  3. SIMPLE IRA retirement plan with strong company match.

Application Process

  1. AMPERS is accepting applications for the full‐time Director of News Programming position beginning October 18, 2024. Applications will be accepted through November 15, 2024, or until the position is filled. Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, three samples of news scripts or newscasts, and three professional references via e‐mail to jobs@ampers.org.
  2. Please enter “Director of News” and your full name as the subject of the e‐mail.

AMPERS Mission Statement

AMPERS will strengthen its member stations and help them to better serve their diverse communities by generating revenue, developing and sharing programming, and actively work to change the narrative regarding historically underrepresented communities through accurate storytelling and reporting.