Director, Rights & Clearances

Versant Media is looking for a Rights and Clearances Director to support their growing newsroom! The Director will manage a team and will work across the various Versant news properties, including MSNBC and CNBC. This position will manage all third-party content, from rights to footage and stills to clearing UGC material for use across Versant platforms, from digital to television, to audio, marketing and longform. The director will also work with Legal and Finance to minimize risk and will create and keep track of clearances for the brand. The work will support news entities, so will often include deadline pressure, and will involve securing and verifying social newsgathering content, in partnership with Standards and Newsgathering. Responsibilities: Act as primary support to Versant news properties developing and implementing rights and clearances process for acquiring and managing rights in third-party content. Acquire, negotiate and draft license agreements with 3rd party content providers, including handouts, UGC and other sources, for use of footage and stills in Versant news programming. Advise Editorial on potential copyright issues and provide solutions to ensure that their newsgathering and creative efforts are accomplished. Act as liaison between Editorial and Legal, Standards, Finance and Archives for the acquisition of 3rd party content. Partner with Newsgathering and Standards on locating, verifying and clearing Social Newsgathering content under tight, breaking news deadlines. Strategize with news and production groups on best practices to ensure that licensing expenditures and potential risks are minimized. Update and manage rights database to indicate copyright source and license agreement information to ensure downstream exploitation. Work hand in hand with Finance to confirm vendor setup and payment with 3rd party vendors.