KBIA News at the Missouri School of Journalism has an immediate opening for an Engagement Producer who, through reporting, producing and community building, works to connect directly with our community and amplify valuable and helpful voices that are often unheard. This desk will specifically help our newsroom tackle engagement-first environmental projects, focusing on the impact of climate change on under-served communities in our region. Examples of this engagement work could include in-depth reporting, talk show producing or hosting, project management, or active community outreach work.

KBIA has existing pilot projects in all of those areas that can be built upon: some examples including the talk show The Check-In, and projects like Missouri on Mic and You Don’t Say. With the news team, and with support from cross-platform partners at the Columbia Missourian and KOMU, the Engagement Producer will help KBIA conduct regular outreach and research to help determine the best products to reach our community, with iteration over time highly likely. We will adjust methods of delivery and products as opportunities to increase reach arise.

This position serves on the staff of the Missouri School of Journalism with classroom teaching responsibilities and will also engage in teaching through newsroom supervision of student journalists. In addition, the Engagement Producer will work on and facilitate cross-platform content with the school’s media holdings, which include a daily newspaper (the Columbia Missourian), a city magazine (Vox), a commercial NBC-affiliated television station (KOMU-TV), an NPR member station (KBIA-FM) and a digital statewide business publication (Missouri Business Alert).

In addition, a quarter of this position will serve as an engagement editor for the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, a collaborative journalism network based at the Journalism School. This will allow the engagement producer to work with a variety of newsrooms and communities throughout the region on environmental and agricultural issues. Responsibilities may include audience and newsroom partner outreach, social and digital media, community event planning and more. The engagement editor will identify other potential priorities and initiatives in collaboration with the Ag & Water Desk's small team of core staff. 

Internal applicants can determine their university title by accessing the Talent Profile tile in myHR.

Shift/location: Monday - Friday, 8am - 5pm, with some nights and weekends. This position is based in-person in Columbia, Missouri. 

Application Materials: Please upload a resume, cover letter, and the name and contact information for three references with the online application.

Apply online at https://hr.missouri.edu/job-openings. Search for job ID 49044.

Relocation costs are negotiable. Review of applications will begin at the end of November.

Other Information
KBIA News is an award-winning, innovative newsroom located in the university town of Columbia, on the campus of the oldest journalism school in the world, the Missouri School of Journalism. Reporters at KBIA News cover this dynamic Mid-Missouri community, coach and edit journalism students, and file reports and features to NPR and other national programs. KBIA News enjoys close collaborations with Missouri public radio stations, the Harvest Public Media and Side Effects Public Media Local Journalism Centers, and with innovative campus organizations such as Investigative Reporters and Editors (I.R.E) and Reynolds Journalism Institute. KBIA staff also lead the way in innovative technologies and storytelling techniques, through community storytelling projects like Missouri Health Talks, and big data projects like Access Missouri. KBIA’s unique relationship with the journalism school means that this role serves on the staff of the Missouri School of Journalism, and the role includes classroom teaching duties as well as supervising and editing Journalism students in the newsroom. This J School partnership allows for an innovative, dynamic news environment that provides opportunities for a hard-working journalist to gain new skills, foster new media relationships and grow professionally. As evidence of all those efforts, in 2020, KBIA was honored with the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence.

The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk is a collaborative reporting network based at the Journalism School. We partner with newsrooms throughout the river basin to report on agriculture, water, climate change, energy, environmental justice and related environmental issues.

Minimum Qualifications: A Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience and at least 2 years of experience from which comparable knowledge and skills can be acquired is necessary.

Preferred Qualifications: Public radio broadcasting/production and fluency in new-media production and social media is desirable.

About KBIA & Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk

The Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk is an editorially independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, in partnership with Report For America and the Society of Environmental Journalists and funded by the Walton Family Foundation. Our journalists work in newsrooms across the Mississippi River watershed to produce stories on agriculture, water, climate change and more. These stories are distributed for free to newsrooms nationwide.

Connections working at KBIA & Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk