How To Become A News Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a news director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a news director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $27.66 an hour? That's $57,534 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 12,800 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreNews DirectorUS Average

Salary

4.5

Avg. Salary $57,534

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 6.39%

Black or African American 7.94%

Hispanic or Latino 14.58%

Unknown 5.59%

White 65.34%

Gender

female 37.59%

male 62.41%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a news director

Explore news director education requirements

Most common news director degrees

Bachelor's

83.7 %

Associate

7.4 %

Master's

5.3 %

Start to develop specific news director skills

Skills	Percentages
News Content	13.59%
News Coverage	9.77%
Facebook	6.45%
Twitter	5.93%
Television Station	4.61%

Complete relevant news director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New news directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a news director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real news director resumes.

Research news director duties and responsibilities

Contribute freelance stories to: NPR, AP, UPI, CBS, NBC, and ABC radio networks.
Implement newsroom social media strategy targeting Facebook, twitter and push alerts.
Secure merchandise, tickets and trips for on-air giveaways
Provide on-line content for the station's website and Facebook page.

Get news director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a news director. The most common roles before becoming a news director include reporter, internship team lead and news reporter.

Prepare your news director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your news director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a news director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable news director resume templates

Build a professional news director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your news director resume.