Derek Schnell was named news director of KCRA/KQCA in 2018, but he’s been part of the news team for several years.

Schnell started his journalism career at the University of Missouri—Columbia. He received extensive hands-on training at KOMU-TV, the NBC affiliate owned by the university, where he served as a reporter, photographer, producer, fill-in anchor, live truck operator and graphic artist.

Schnell began his career at what was then called Hearst-Argyle Television as an investigative intern at KETV-TV in Omaha, covering trials and conducting jailhouse interviews.

From there, he joined the team at KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City as a producer. He covered tornado outbreaks, wildfires, ice storms and more, before ascending to the role of morning executive producer.

After that, Schnell joined KMBC-TV in Kansas City as the nightside executive producer, launching the station’s first digital-only interactive newscast.

In 2014, Schnell headed west to California to join KCRA/KQCA as the nightside executive producer, then co-assistant news director. In his time at the station, he’s innovated multiplatform news coverage projects and launched the one-hour 10 p.m. newscast on KQCA. He has been instrumental in integrating digital innovation into the daily news workflow to provide content tailored to the stations’ television, digital and social audiences. Under Schnell’s leadership, KCRA has received several prestigious honors, including Regional Edward R. Murrow awards, Northern California Emmys, Associated Press awards and an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award.