The Apprentice, Scripps Style
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Scripps has posted a job that sounds like and Assistant News Director gig, but is called “News Manager Apprentice.”
It seems that Scripps is looking for someone that is not in news management to move into news management.
This is the posting by WTVF in Nashville, TN:
Primary Purpose
Do you feel ready, willing and able to move into news management but need to gain valuable experience? If so, Scripps is searching for a News Manager Apprentice to be trained at WTVF, The Scripps CBS Station in Nashville, Tennessee. The successful candidate must bring a new set of eyes to the process, and have innovative ideas on how local news content can evolve. We welcome candidates that come from different areas of the newsroom that don't have a traditional news management track. Anchors, reporters and photographers with a different and creative approach to management are encouraged to apply.
The News Manager Apprentice position is focused on learning newsroom leadership responsibilities and developing the skills needed for news management. On-the-job developmental assignments and duties allow for optimum preparation while serving as a significant newsroom contributor. Once trained, the hope and expectation is to relocate to another Scripps-owned station elsewhere in the country to be responsible for directing gathering, production and distribution of news content on multiple platforms. Thus, candidates must be willing to relocate to any Scripps location.
Key Activities
Reporter coaching: Work with less experienced reporters, locally and possibly at other Scripps stations, to advance their skills in story development, deconstructing stories, and to develop online coverage.
Shadow each functional role in the newsroom with assigned learning objectives and generates/shares reports to illustrate new knowledge.
When ready, support news management with supervisory responsibilities on an as needed basis.
Shadow interviewing and selection process for newsroom openings, debrief learning with hiring manager.
When ready, assist news management in the on-going evaluation of personnel.
Work with news management to fully learn the station’s content strategy and understand the aspects of strategy execution.
Collaborate with news management to create tactics and strategies to successfully execute the content strategy.
Strengthen working knowledge of federal, state and local laws impacting operations. Debrief knowledge with news management. Teach others.
Examine and learn Scripps approach to cross platform content creation and distribution.
Assist news management with writing copy and editing scripts and web content.
As requested, manage scheduling for newsroom employees.
Support coverage planning of major events, i. e. elections, special events.
Work with news management to study communication within the newsroom as well as items communicated across the station departments. Interview communication message senders and receivers. Make suggestions for strengthening communications. Implement suggestions as directed.
Support or shadow News management in managing the budgetary aspects of newsroom operations.
Other duties as assigned.
