We review all resumes submitted for positions below and keep them on file for at least one year. If you do not see a posted position on this page, please note that we do not accept unsolicited resumes and they will not be reviewed or kept on file.

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News Director

KPFA is seeking a seasoned journalist with a steady hand to lead and manage our news team and oversee the production of high-quality, mission-driven news content. This includes reporting on the Trump Administration’s norm-busting initiatives, their local impacts, and the many forms of resistance.  This role is ideal for those with a strong background in journalism and a passion for delivering accurate and timely news to our listeners. As the News Director, you will be the strategic mastermind behind news programming, ensuring that content meets high journalistic standards and resonates with our audience. This position requires a diverse skill set that includes on-air anchoring, leadership, editorial judgment, and a deep understanding of the rapidly evolving media landscape. If you’re interested, continue reading to explore the critical elements that make this position challenging and incredibly rewarding. We invite you to apply.

JOB BRIEF: As KPFA’s News Director, you will play a crucial role in shaping our alternative news coverage while ensuring accurate and engaging information delivery. The News Director also identifies, recruits, and manages talent, sets clear, achievable, and measurable goals for individual performance, provides frequent and constructive feedback, and holds staff accountable to themselves, the team, and KPFA.

This role is essential for our News Director to establish and maintain a new media strategy for distributing our news and information across various digital platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, mobile apps, and live streaming. This position demands strong leadership skills and a deep understanding of the constantly evolving news landscape. You will collaborate with different departments and work closely with the other managers to steer the station’s strategic direction. This position manages the News Department staff, including the headlines editors, anchors and reporters and has the authority of “supervisor” as stated in the National Labor Relations Act. The News Director reports to the General Manager.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage, mentor, and train a team of paid and volunteer reporters and news anchors.
• Develop and implement strategies to enhance the quality and relevance of our coverage.
• Oversee the planning and execution of news stories, ensuring accuracy, fairness, and adherence to journalistic standards.
• Work with other departments, such as Engineering and Programming, to guarantee the smooth coordination and integration of news content.
• Stay informed about current events and industry trends.
• Monitor and analyze audience feedback to meet audience preferences.
• Manage the news budget and resources efficiently to enhance productivity.
• Encourage a positive and collaborative work environment by offering guidance and support to team members.
• Establish clear expectations, monitor employee and volunteer performance, conduct regular performance evaluations, apply corrective action when necessary, and practice consistency and fairness when adhering to station guidelines.

DETAILED RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and implement editorial policies and guidelines to ensure consistent, high-quality news content.
• Work with reporters and journalists to discover and cultivate newsworthy stories and perspectives.
• Review and revise news scripts to ensure accuracy, clarity, and compliance with journalistic standards.
• Coordinate with production teams to guarantee news content’s smooth and timely delivery.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Coordinate news content across platforms, evaluate staff performance, and build relationships with community leaders.
• Newsroom management: Lead newsroom meetings and editorial planning sessions 
• Budget Management: Oversee the news budget and allocate resources. 
• Compliance:  Adhere to FCC broadcasting regulations and station policies. 

QUALIFICATIONS: 

• A degree in journalism or a related field.
• On-air experience, a newsroom veteran, preferably in a leadership role.
• Strong communication skills.
• Ability to work under pressure and demonstrated ability to maintain a professional demeanor, especially in a fast-paced environment of constant demands and frequent interruptions.
• Knowledge of FCC rules and journalism ethics.
• Experience with digital news platforms, websites, and social media infrastructure.
• Proficiency in newsroom software and content management systems.
• Experience in managing budgets.
• High energy level, enthusiasm, initiative, and flexibility.
• Strong self-motivation in carrying out responsibilities, organizing and prioritizing multiple tasks, and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to handle and protect sensitive, confidential material.
• Proven experience recruiting, retaining, and leading dynamic and talented people to build superior, inclusive teams.
• Proven experience in successfully managing teams, including setting, motivating, and achieving individual and departmental goals, mentoring and managing performance for all team members, and facilitating communication between teammates with different styles.
• Ability to work cross-departmentally, facilitating cooperation between teams and leading by example to ensure alignment on organization-wide goals.
• An understanding of the concepts of institutional and structural racism and bias and their impact on under-invited communities, either through lived experience and/or training and education.
• Commitment to advancing justice and equity in media. 
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with people of diverse backgrounds, promote a positive working environment and spirit of cooperation, and react positively to change and conflict resolution.
• Must be able to work an irregular schedule, including evenings or weekends as needed and additional hours during peak times or as required.

Physical Requirements: Long periods of being in a stationary position, operating a computer and other office equipment, frequently moving to and from various work areas, often communicating by phone, email, and Google Meet.

Working Conditions: This position requires one to work in the station at least four days a week. 

Compensation & Benefits: Exempt Full-Time, Management position. $70,000 to $75,000 annually, depending on experience. Employer-paid (up to all-family) medical and dental; 403B retirement up to 4% employer match, FSA and Commuter benefits available. Generous vacation, sick and holiday leave package.

To apply, send a resume, cover letter and two links of your radio journalism work to [email protected] by 12 noon on Tuesday, April 22, 2025.

KPFA is an equal opportunity employer and will not tolerate discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, marital status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected classification or status.

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About KPFA: Founded by pacifist, poet, and journalist Lewis Hill, KPFA began broadcasting on April 15th, 1949 as the first listener-supported non-commercial radio station in the United States. We are community-powered and solely supported by listener donations and like-minded foundations. Our coverage area reaches one-third of the state, in Northern and Central California, and we broadcast on 94.1FM KPFA and 89.3FM KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1FM KFCF in Fresno, 97.5FM K248BR in Santa Cruz, 94.3FM K232FZ in Monterey, and online at kpfa.org.

We create and curate a unique mix of local, original, and eclectic music; public affairs; culture; and news programs. We investigate the contemporary intersections of class, race, and the distribution of wealth, along with their effects on the people within our coverage area. Over the years, we have facilitated discussions about historical moments of political impasse, racial tensions, and economic inequality. The majority of our hosts and producers are volunteers who donate their time and energy to create content.

The Pacifica Foundation/KPFA is an American non-profit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation.

KPFA’s Mission: Our mission is to deliver impactful coverage of current events through original reporting and programming, amplifying historically excluded voices. We also present music that entertains, educates, and/or inspires the listener. As an independent radio station, we prioritize accountability and transparency to our supporting public, offering insightful context on ongoing events. We achieve this by conducting interviews, offering analyses, and presenting music to shed light on social conditions. We aim to provide thought-provoking content that addresses a range of complex issues affecting our community of listeners.

Organization Values: Collaboration: Work with individuals or teams to create engaging content; Trust: Believe in the character, strength, or truth of individuals and the organization; Inclusion: Provide equal access to opportunities and resources; Accountability, Responsibility, and Ownership: Explain, justify, and take responsibility for one’s actions.

Organizational Practice: To collaborate, build trust, and foster inclusivity, our organizational practice involves dedicating 80 percent of our time to clear planning, communication of needs and requests, adherence to agreed tasks and deadlines, and assuming accountability, responsibility, and ownership for our actions and their impact on colleagues. Effective communication is vital; all ideas or proposals must be discussed in person or through virtual meetings with all involved. After each meeting, a document outlining action items for everyone’s reference must be provided.

The Pacifica Foundation/KPFA is an equal opportunity employer and will not tolerate discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, marital status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected classification or status.

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KPFA ELECTIONS POLICY AND REQUIREMENTS

 

KPFA programmers must refrain from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. KPFA programmers are also prohibited from giving exclusive or unequal access to the air to a candidate or candidates.

This applies to volunteer programmers as well as paid programming staff. We could lose our 501(c) (3) status. Volunteers can speak their minds off the air, but on the air they have to follow the rules as if they were the station.

 

You do not instruct people how to vote.

 

You do not announce whom you are voting for.

 

You do not give candidates unequal access to KPFA’s air.

 

Details from Chapter 7 of The Public Radio Legal Handbook:

 

Whenever a legally qualified candidates makes “use” of a broadcast station in a non-exempt program, that station must afford all opposing candidates equal opportunities to air programming that reaches comparable audience size. The obligation is to provide “equal opportunities”, not equal time. For example, if one candidate has been given five minutes during peak audience, morning drive time, while an opposing candidate is given five minutes at 1:00 am, the two candidates would have been given equal time but not equal opportunities to communicate with the public.

 

A station is not obligated to contact candidates to offer ”equal opportunities” after a competing candidate has appeared on the station. The station’s obligation is simply to place a record of “use” in its Public File as soon after the appearance as possible. Legally qualified opponents must assert their right to equal opportunities within seven days of the appearance by the first candidate so prompt placement of a record of the appearance in the Public File is critical.

 

Candidates for any state, local or federal election may exercise the right of equal opportunity.

 

The F.C.C. exempts from these requirements any “bona fide newscast”, “bona fide news interview” and “bona fide news documentary” and “on the spot coverage of bona fide news events including but not limited to political conventions”.

 

 

KPFA Election Policy is More Comprehensive:

 

In keeping with the F.C.C. requirements and the general principal of fairness to candidates and to our audience, KPFA has adopted the practice of inviting *all* candidates for a particular public office onto an interview or other program – and not just the “progressive” candidate.

 

It is the KPFA programmer’s responsibility to notify the Program Director or Chief Engineer if they intend to have a candidate participate on their show. The programmer will be required to provide equal opportunity to all other candidates within two weeks of the original program, or less, if election day is within two weeks.

 

Ballot Measures:

 

KPFA Programmers who are discussing ballot measures must invite both sides pro/con on the air – not just the representative from one side – and give reasonable notice and opportunity to both sides to appear.

 

KPFA Programmers Who Run for Office

 

KPFA removes from the air programmers who decide to run for public office and requires them to stay off the air until the election is over. This applies to all programmers, including music programmers and not just public affairs hosts. Allowing them to remain on the air, even if they don’t discuss their candidacy, would trigger the F.C.C. equal opportunity requirement.

 

 

Music Shows

 

The requirements apply to music programs as well as public affairs shows. Some programmers have asked about songs that endorse candidates or parties. Songs are considered artistic statements and are exempt from the rules. But you must not say you agree with the song.

 

Mandated Reporting

 

If you do invite candidates on the air, you must keep a log of whom you talked to, for how long and about what. This information must be reported to Engineering preferably immediately and definitely within 24 hours of broadcast for inclusion in KPFA’s F.C.C. Public File.

 

If you have any questions about this, or would like to read up on it further, please contact Aileen Alfandary in the News Department, [email protected]