Job Description

Job Description

Job Description

Deputy Managing Editor - Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom

Join Us in Shaping Appalachian & Southern Narratives

Are you an experienced journalist with a passion for leadership and a keen interest in making a real impact in southern and Appalachian communities? The Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom is looking for a dynamic, creative journalist to serve as Deputy Editor of its new NPR regional hub. This is not just a job; it's an opportunity to directly serve the communities in this region and play a part in helping everyday people tell the world their own story.

About us:

The Deputy Editor works within the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaborative of public media outlets: West Virginia Public Broadcasting; Nashville Public Radio in Nashville, Tennessee; WUOT in Knoxville, Tennessee; LPM in Louisville, Kentucky; WEKU in Richmond/Lexington, Kentucky; WKYU in Bowling Green, Somerset, Henderson/Owensboro and Elizabethtown, Kentucky; and WKMS in Murray, Kentucky. The Schmidt Family Foundation and NPR are supporting the launch of this new regional hub as part of NPR’s initiative to expand its collaborative journalism network to more communities in need. The Deputy Editor will join the team at Nashville Public Radio and work with the entire Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom.

Your Mission:

As Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom Deputy Editor, you’ll play a key role in shaping the collaborative’s coverage. You’ll edit multimedia stories that will be shared regionally and nationally. You’ll also collaborate closely with the newsroom Managing Editor and fill-in when this newsroom leader is absent. From helping manage relationships with collaborative partners to leading the newsroom’s continuing education program, you'll be at the forefront of impactful journalism.

Why join the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom?

• Diverse and Inclusive Environment: The Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As Deputy Editor, you'll step into an environment that upholds these values and will help further them, making a lasting impact on the collaborative’s member outlets and the communities we serve.
• Equitable Compensation: This role will be paid a range of $70,000-$80,000 annually, with regular opportunities for salary review. You’ll be provided with an excellent benefits package that includes paid time off, health insurance, and retirement benefits.
• Leadership Impact: Lead by influence and build excitement. You'll get to work with reporters across the collaborative to develop and shape stories that directly serve the region and/or share voices from the region with a national audience. You’ll be second in command in our new NPR regional hub and have the opportunity to collaborate with NPR and public media leaders around the region.
• Flexibility and Support: Enjoy a flexible, hybrid work environment. We invest in your professional growth through company-funded training, conferences, and membership in a professional organization.

What you'll do:

• Foster an environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Serve as the collaborative’s backup editorial leader, working closely with the newsroom Managing Editor and helping to communicate with NPR when national news breaks in the region.
• Help collaborative reporters develop and shape stories that directly serve the region and/or share voices from the region with a national audience.
• Line-edit multimedia stories for regional and national distribution and maintain the collaborative’s editorial calendar.
• Lead the professional development program, scheduling regular group training sessions for the collaborative’s reporters and editors.
• Help the Managing Editor strengthen collaborative relationships with the editorial leaders of the newsroom’s member outlets, and participate in cross-collaborative meetings and engagement events.

Key qualifications:

We’re looking for an innovative and experienced journalist who contributes to a supportive and creative working environment. Diverse experiences, education, and work histories can foster those skills. We’re looking for both experienced editors and people who are ready to take the next step and become an editor. Even if you think you meet most but not all of the qualifications below, we still want to hear from you.

• Impeccable journalistic integrity and judgment.
• Experience working in a newsroom.
• Demonstrated ability to report, write, and edit stories on deadline for multiple platforms, including social media.
• Excellent working knowledge of journalism ethics and AP-style.
• Ability to give constructive feedback and guidance on reporting and writing.
• Detail-oriented with a love for managing collaborative storytelling projects.
• A passion for serving Appalachian and mid-south communities.
• Access to reliable transportation and the ability to travel across the region.
• Must be able to work some non-standard and weekend hours.

Preferred experience:

• Expertise in audio journalism.
• Experience writing and editing news stories for web.
• Knowledge of the ins and outs of regional culture, politics and state governments.
• Understanding of the unique challenges facing Appalachian communities.
• Comfortable leading by influence and collaborating with multiple stakeholders.

If you are a visionary journalist ready to make a lasting impact, we would like to invite you to apply. Please include resume, cover letter, and three work samples (stories or projects you’ve written or edited). For audio work samples, provide links to audio hosted online — do not send attachments via email.

Want to learn more about the job? Sign up for a time to chat with Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom’s Managing Editor, Ryan Van Velzer. rvanvelzer@lpm.org

Application deadline: September 27, 2024.

Physical Demands

The employee in this position is frequently standing, walking, or sitting; using hands to finger, handle, or feel; reaching with hands and arms, and talking or hearing.

Lifts Weight or Exerts Force Work Environment

The employee in this position may regularly lift up to 20 pounds.

Vision

Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Salary Information

$70,000 - $80,000 (Negotiable based on experience)

About Nashville Public Radio

Nashville Public Radio serves Middle Tennessee by providing trusted in-depth news, engaging music, and unique cultural programs on 90.3 FM WPLN News, WNXP, Nashville Classical Radio, and our various digital platforms. For more than 60 years, listeners have turned to this community supported service for programming that inspires conversation and curiosity, educates, and entertains. Our values are

• To operate the station at the highest level of professional standards and integrity.
• To be responsive to our listeners, members, supporters, and public.
• To exhibit mutual respect for our peers and audience.
• To value the member and community support that our station receives.
• To work together in an environment that encourages participation and sharing of the decisions that affect the station and our listeners.

WPLN News is the newsroom of Nashville Public Radio, a community-licensed, nonprofit news outlet that strives to cover our region with context, courage and respect. We aim to hold officials accountable and serve audiences that are often underrepresented in positions of power, including people of color, immigrants and those in the working class.

Within the newsroom, our collaborative and diverse team works together to help every journalist realize their potential on the job, while also giving them space to live a full life outside of it. We strive to perform at the highest level: Since 2019, our newsroom has received a Peabody, a national Murrow Award and a Pulitzer finalist nod, as well as the Daniel Schorr Prize for the best public media journalist under 35. And we have ongoing collaborations with outside organizations, including ProPublica, Serial and the local Spanish-language outlet Nashville Noticias, to expand the reach and scope of our journalism.

Nashville Public Radio is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusivity in our hiring. Nashville Public Radio is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations.

Nashville Public Radio offers a generous benefit package including medical, vision, dental, and an robust Employee Assistance Program inclusive of six free sessions of counseling each year and basic legal assistance. Long-term disability and life insurance are provided at no cost to employees. We also have up to 40 days of paid parental or medical leave, inclusive for adoptive and/or foster parents.

In addition to these benefits, employees receive vacation and sick leave, access to a 401(k) plan with employer matching, and 13 paid holidays, 2 of which are floating to employee preference.

The job profile is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, and/or new ones may be assigned at any time with or without notice.

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