Story Desk Editor

About the role

KIDY KXVA-TV, the TEGNA-owned Fox affiliate in San Angelo, Texas, is transforming the way we gather and present news. The Story Desk Manager will embrace a leadership role in this transition to the newsroom of the future, guiding a team of content creators in story discovery and presentation across all platforms. This position manages the story development process throughout the day, leveraging best practices of running an assignment desk and training others to excel at developing local contacts and responding to breaking news.

The Story Desk Manager will be part of a leadership team overseeing the station’s coverage of breaking news, developing stories, and enterprise reporting for streaming, online, app, social media, and linear television platforms, with a focus on stories that matter to the community. The ideal candidate is an experienced journalist with a knack for building a team that works smarter, seeks information effectively, and presents stories in modern, creative ways. The ability to identify and pursue urgent, impactful, and newsworthy stories, respond to breaking news, manage chaos, pivot quickly, solve problems creatively, train a motivated team, and guide a multi-platform newsroom’s content are all key to this role.

The Story Desk Manager leads the Story Management Desk (SMD), a unified desk replacing legacy assignment and digital desks, ensuring a single, streamlined workflow for planning, producing, and curating stories across platforms.

Responsibilities

• Oversee daily coverage decisions and reporter assignments to be competitive across platforms with the goal to own the big story daily.
• Determine the best format for each story, how it should be presented on different platforms, and a reasonable timeline for delivery.
• Look ahead and plan coverage for upcoming news cycles.
• Lead regular story check-ins throughout the day.
• Maximize audience insights to aid in content choices and improve audience reach.
• Ensure competitive, engaging, and impactful content for all platforms, including digital (website, mobile app, and streaming).
• Plan coverage of stories that matter most to the community, using editorial judgment and social listening.
• With the Story Desk Editors, provide editorial support for MSJs, producers, and photojournalists, including reviewing scripts, videos, and content for accuracy, grammar, AP style, digital best practices, fairness, and ethical considerations.
• Lead and communicate newsroom coverage during breaking news, ensuring accuracy, urgency, and balance.
• Uphold TEGNA’s journalistic standards and values across all platforms.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in journalism, communications, or at least 5 years of journalism experience in a local newsroom, digital production, or related role.
• Superior news judgment and the ability to make fast, sound editorial decisions under pressure.
• Proven record of success handling breaking news.
• Experience managing a team of journalists.
• Demonstrated knowledge of content desk operations.
• Experience helping transform and manage news-gathering systems.
• Impeccable organizational skills with a keen eye for detail.
• Demonstrated success as both a team leader and a team player.
• Effective communication skills.
• Familiarity with the market is a plus.

Benefits

• Two medical plan options for full and part-time employees through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, as well as access to dental and eye care coverage.
• Fertility, surrogacy, and adoption assistance.
• Disability and life insurance.
• 401(k) program with a 100% company match on contributions up to the first 4% of pay, fully vested from day one.
• Nine free virtual doctor’s appointments with a physician through Teladoc for all employees and their eligible family members, regardless of participation in TEGNA medical plans.
• Twelve free annual therapy sessions with a licensed clinician through Spring Health.
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) benefit and nine paid holidays per year.
• Some jobs are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, which may affect the applicability of certain benefits.