News Director

About KUNC

At KUNC, our mission is simple: to serve the diverse communities of Northern Colorado by delivering independent, insightful, and inclusive journalism. We believe in the power of storytelling to foster understanding, empathy, and connection, and we're committed to producing content that reflects the voices and experiences of our region.

KUNC brings you the best in news, music, and culture from Northern Colorado and beyond. Since our founding in 1967, we've provided our listeners with quality programming that informs, entertains, and enriches their lives.

As a public radio station, KUNC is driven by a commitment to public service and the principles of journalism. Our team of experienced reporters, producers, and hosts work tirelessly to bring you the latest news and analysis on issues that matter most to our community. Whether it's local politics, environmental issues, or cultural events, you can count on KUNC to keep you informed and engaged.

KUNC is seeking an experienced and collaborative News Director to guide a highly respected public media newsroom through an exciting period of focus, innovation, and audience growth.

This is a senior leadership role. In addition to strong journalism instincts and daily production expertise, the ideal candidate will bring a clear editorial vision, a people-centered approach to management, and a demonstrated ability to build effective systems that support excellent multi-channel journalism. Successful candidates will bring experience leading meaningful, forward-looking change in a newsroom or content organization. They are comfortable leading in all directions such as supporting staff, collaborating across teams, and managing up, and are equally skilled at empowering their team while setting clear, consistent expectations.

The News Director will play a key role in setting priorities, communicating clearly, and creating a supportive and accountable environment where staff can thrive. This person will strengthen KUNC’s journalism across platforms while expanding how audiences connect with our work.

The News Director will ensure KUNC produces timely journalism that gives audiences something they cannot easily get elsewhere: humanity, accountability, local knowledge, trusted explanation, and a clear sense of why the story matters. KUNC’s journalism should explain, connect, verify, and deepen public understanding of how decisions, systems, policies, culture, economy, environment, and community change affect people in Northern Colorado.

President & CEO

journalism staff, including reporters, editors, and other journalism roles as assigned.

full-time, exempt

• Lead KUNC’s 12-person newsroom in daily news operations with excellent news judgment, strong ethical standards, and a clear commitment to trusted, independent public service journalism.
• Develop editorial routines and implement planning systems that support strong story generation, sharp focus, distinctive storytelling, deeper sourcing, clear digital presentation, and intentional distribution across multiple platforms with a digital-first lens.
• Set editorial priorities for local and regional coverage, using KUNC’s strategic plan, audience needs, community value, opportunities for growth, membership base and ratings/data.
• Set clear expectations for when a story belongs in a newscast, when it needs a fuller feature or enterprise approach, how it should lead digitally, and when it should be distributed across multiple platforms.
• Ensure KUNC’s journalism reflects the communities it serves with accuracy, fairness, relevance, inclusion, and public impact.
• Maintain and enforce high standards for reporting, writing, editing, audio production, digital publishing, sourcing, ethics, and editorial independence.
• Make clear editorial choices about what KUNC should cover, pivot away from, and where the newsroom can provide the most value.
• Analyze and value strategic partnerships.

• Actively use audience data, KPIs, platform performance, and community feedback to regularly guide story planning,…