8 Producing

By Kiera Farrimond

KSL Executive Producer

Take the image of a big shot Hollywood producer out of your head. That is NOT what we’re about to talk about. News producers don’t have their name in the credits.  They don’t sit back and make decisions while other people do all the work. And they don’t make millions of dollars.

News producers work entirely behind the scenes, do most of the hard labor and generally get no credit for their work (at least from the public). Sounds glamorous right?  In the newsroom, producers are the workhorses. Some days, producers will work nonstop from the moment they sit down until the moment their show goes off the air.  It’s a demanding, thankless job. So why be a news producer? Because it can also be the most exhilarating and rewarding job in the newsroom. We’ll let these long time producers explain why they love what they do:

“Just when I think I can’t take it anymore, something happens that makes me realize how important my job is and how many lives I can positively impact.” – Erica Thomas, WBRC Producer

“Never the same day twice.” – Atish Patel, WTSP Producer

“There’s nothing quite like creating something from nothing every single day. Then, erasing it all and starting over. You learn to condense a ton of information into digestible portions every day. And you absolutely rely on teamwork to get things done.” – Melissa Dies, KXLY Executive Producer

What Is a News Producer?

Producers are the brains behind every newscast.

They’re the ones who decide which stories make the show, which stories get cut, and just how much time each story is worth.  It’s up to a producer to give viewers an all-encompassing look at what’s going on in the world that day, which is not an easy task in such a short amount of time. Producers decide how much of the newscast is dedicated to crime and how much is reserved for happy stories.

Producers are the writers of the newscast.

The only things in a newscast not written by the producer are the meteorologist’s weather report, the sports report and stories filed in the field by a reporter.  If an anchor reads it off the teleprompter, there’s a 99 percent chance the producer wrote it. In some stations, you’ll find anchors who like to help out and write some scripts, but in others, you’ll find anchors who couldn’t say their name right on TV if the producer hadn’t typed it into the teleprompter for them. This obviously means producers need to have good writing skills, good grammar and even good spelling because the last thing you want during a live newscast is for an anchor to say pubic instead of public, Osama instead of Obama, moron instead of Mormon, you get the idea. They’ve all hit air in my career, and you can bet the anchor, executive producer and news directors were not thrilled after the show.

Producers are the vision behind the newscast.

The look, the feel and the tone of the show come entirely from the producer.  Will the show start off with a reporter on a house fire or will the lead story be a different reporter on a big scandal at the state capitol? Will the anchors read story after story about robberies, stabbings or will the show be filled with stories on the economy or consumer alerts? The producer makes all of those decisions. Each newscast a station airs is going to have a different feel. Early morning news should be different than mid-day news, early evening and late-evening news. The story choices, the length of those stories and even the way the stories are written will be different, and it’s the producer’s job to know their show and their audience.  Meanwhile, while it’s important for ALL journalists to be impartial and not show bias, but as a producer you face this is two ways. Where a reporter must make sure his or her story is not right- or left-leaning or missing interviews to give the story balance, a producer has to make sure each story is the same AND make sure that the mix of stories chosen to fill the newscast does not show bias as well.

Good producers take ownership of their newscast.

Producers come to work each day hoping to craft their best newscast.

To good producers, a rundown is not a template to be filled in. It is a blank canvas providing timing parameters to the day’s biggest stories and best videos. Good producers cultivate relationships with the anchors, editors, reporters, photographers and other members of the newsroom. They accept responsibility for their mistakes that make air and work to correct the errors and learn from the mistakes. They also accept the responsibility of figuring out what did go wrong, if it wasn’t something they caused. Anchors want to know why when they were supposed to be on-camera reading a story, the director took a different camera or the wrong video or graphic came up. It’s the producer’s job to talk to everyone involved after the show and help ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Duties of a Producer

Find the News – From helping determine which stories your reporters are going to cover and which of those will end up in your show, producers are also in charge of finding all the other news of the day to fill the show. This can be more local news, national or world news, consumer news, medical news, and even some news that just plain fun here and there. We’ll talk more in depth about how producers find the news later on in this chapter.

Stack the News – Once a producer has found the news, or as they are finding it, they are stacking it in a rundown. This means they’re deciding which order the stories will go on air. Producers have to keep in mind what’s coming before and what’s coming after a story. You want to group like stories together, i.e. crime stories, health stories, etc. But you also don’t want to have five straight minutes of crime in the newscast. That’s just depressing for everyone watching, and if you depress your viewers, they won’t watch you again.

Write the News – When a show is stacked, the producer will spend time writing all of the great stories they’ve chosen for their newscast. Information for these stories can come from local press releases, on-camera interviews from the scene of a local news event, national and international wire feeds and other news video feed services.

Edit the News – If a news anchor says it, it’d better be true. One of the BIGGEST jobs of a producer is to edit the news. This includes looking for factual errors but also grammar errors and spelling errors. Producers should read EVERYTHING they’ve written out-loud before it goes on air. You want to make sure the story will make sense to a viewer who has to hear and understand the story in a very short period.

Time the News – Once you’re on the air, the production team takes over most of the hard work.  But a producer can’t sit back and relax in the control room. At this point, their biggest job is to time the show. Each newscast is given a specific amount of airtime to fill, down to the second or even the frame. There is no budging. If your show is scheduled to start at 5:00:00 and end at 5:28:35 and your anchors are still talking at 5:28:36, they will be cut off, and your station will move on to the next program without them. Not only does this look unprofessional on the air but it makes the anchors look bad and you never, ever want to make your anchors look bad on the air.

Coordinate with the Production Team – During their shift, a producer is typically in the zone for most of the day. That means, sitting at their desk with multiple windows open on their computer, typically with headphones on listening to stories or video, getting information, writing stories, editing stories, etc. There’s not a lot of group discussion taking place. But as you get nearer to air, you have to come out of your zone and begin to communicate with your director and other people on your production staff. These guys are the experts in getting it done. Do you want to try a new camera shot or angle? Run that by your director, maybe even take a field trip to the studio to see the angle for yourself and adjust with the director’s guidance. Most directors are happy to try new things, as long as they’re physically possible AND as long as a producer gives plenty of time to plan and practice. Good producers are willing to take risks, think outside the box and give viewers a new experience every now and then and they absolutely can’t do that without a great relationship with their director.

Coordinate with the Assignment Desk – The assignment desk is the heart of all the action in a newsroom. It’s where the police scanners are blaring, the phones are ringing and the crews are being dispatched. It’s critical that a producer keep close communication with the assignment desk, so they know of any changes to big stories or of any new stories that are breaking and need to be added to their show. In some newsrooms, and on some shifts, it’s part of the producer’s job to listen to those police scanners and react with appropriate crews. But even if it’s not your job, you should learn the police lingo, train your ears to understand the jumbled mess that comes out of those speakers and at the very least, pay attention enough so that you can tell when there’s breaking news because of all the extra noise coming from the assignment desk.

Coordinate with the Reporters – Producer/reporter communication is critical in every newsroom. Producers should be checking in with their reporters throughout the day. They should know if the reporter scored an exclusive interview or if the reporter is struggling to get anyone to do an interview. Producers can help redirect reporters in the event their story falls through, or they can help come up with ideas of different angles to pursue. A reporter’s story should never surprise a producer live on the air, so it’s important to make sure that two-way communication is open up until the show is on the air and then during the newscast through interruptible feedback or IFB. Reporters in the field are relying on the producer during the show to let them know how long they have until their live, how long they have left in their time and when to wrap things up. Clear communication here is critical, and a good producer doesn’t forget about their crews in the field, even when things are falling apart in the studio.

Coordinate with the Anchors – They make the big bucks for a reason. They are the face on the TV and it’s their reputation on the line every single time that the “On Air” light turns on. Anchors are typically more seasoned journalists with years more experience than most producers have. This is a valuable tool for a producer. If you’re questioning what story to lead with or whether or not to use a certain piece of video or soundbite, on top of getting guidance from an executive producer or news director, ask the anchor. In most newsrooms, the anchors are happy to be included in the discussion. Producers also want to make sure they warn anchors about anything new or different happening in the show. If you want your anchor to use a touchscreen, for example, and they’ve never done it before, you need to give them a heads up well before air time, so they have time to practice and get comfortable. Let’s be honest; you’d never have an anchor who had never used the touchscreen before, use it for the first time on the air. It would be a complete and total nightmare. But let’s say you took that field trip with your director and decided to try out a new camera shot. Anchors are creatures of habit, and when the camera isn’t where they think it should be, they get nervous. Alerting them before air gives them a chance to prepare. During the show, producers are the anchors’ connection to the control room. Producers have the ability to get in their ear at any moment and let them know a story has been killed or cut out of the show, tell them a reporter’s live shot has died or even let them know their necklace or tie is crooked. Good producers know how to balance between talking to the anchors too much and leaving the anchors out there feeling lost and alone with no clue what’s going on in production control. Trust me; anchors want to know what’s going on when things start going away from the plan. A calm, collected producer in their ear will do wonders for their nerves, even if all the producer can say is “I don’t know what’s wrong but we’re working on it, and this is what we’re going to go to next.”

Be a Newsroom Leader – Producers get to work with nearly everyone in a newsroom which means you get to build relationships across and outside the building. That puts producers in the position to take a leadership role even if they’re not in any sort of management role. Again, producers are the vision behind the newscast. They have the big picture in their mind, so it’s their job to help everyone from the talent to the art department understand the vision so that everyone comes together nicely on the air.

Where Does All The News Come From?

In a newscast, you’ll typically see six types of news: local, national, world, interesting news from out of your local market, weather and sports. Producers get to decide how much of each newscast is dedicated to each. Let’s take a brief look at what each of those mean and then we’ll explore where the producer finds those stories to include in their newscast.

1. Local News – Producers in local TV markets will fill the majority of their newscasts with local news. These can come in multiple formats including reporter PKGs, VOs, VO/SOTs, NatPKGs, Maps and full-screen graphics.
2. National News – These are the top stories of interest across the country that day. This could be political news coming out of Washington, D.C., or it could be a mass tragedy in a different state. These are stories you’re likely to see the networks cover heavily during the morning and evening network news. Typically, local TV producers will include this news in smaller forms. Instead of dedicating 2-3 minutes to the story, it might get only 25-45 seconds during a local newscast.
3. World News – Following national news, this one is self-explanatory. These are stories with international interest. This could be political, or it could be a major weather incident in another country.
4. Interesting news from across the country – Think incredible video of a swift-water rescue during flooding in the Midwest, aerial footage of a wild llama chase through the streets of Phoenix or the story of how a 4-year-old girl in Florida helped save her little brother from an alligator attack and she retells the entire thing in front of the camera. These are stories that have some kind of wow factor that makes them interesting to viewers everywhere.
5. Weather – This is almost always the biggest factor in why a viewer turns on a newscast. Viewers want to know how to prepare for the day, or the next day, with what to wear, what to bring, etc.
6. Sports Headlines – Not an element of EVERY newscast, but generally you’ll see some kind of sports segment in most morning news and late-evening news.

Now that you understand the basic content categories that can make up a newscast, let’s look at where producers find stories that fall into those categories.

1. Local News – These are stories shot locally by your own station’s photography staff and/or reporters. You might have a story that doesn’t have any video but you can have a map built to show the location of the event, or you can have a graphic made to show a person’s mugshot or describe the suspect police are looking for.
2. National News – Producers can find these stories in a handful of places. Obviously, it’s impossible for a local TV producer in Boise, Idaho to call police in Boston, Massachusetts for information regarding a news event happening there. Just as it would be impossible for a producer in San Diego, California to gather his own information about the G20 summit happening overseas. But it’s important for most daily newscasts to include elements of news from out of your local area. That’s where news wires and news video feeds come in.
   Each station typically subscribes to 2-3 of these services. The Associated Press is probably the most widely used by a majority of stations. The Associated Press is a standard resource most producers have access to, and it’s a great place to start the day and get a feel for what’s making news nationally, internationally and even locally in some markets. The AP Wires include National Newsminutes that are sent out every hour. This is typically very short, but informative bulletins giving the very latest in the top 6-7 national stories of that day.
   Video to accompany your national news will come from the affiliate video news service. For CBS stations, that’s generally CBS Newspath. For NBC, it’s NBC VideoOnDemand (VOD). CNN also has a video news feed that many stations pay a subscription to. These services usually have staff reporters who are available for affiliate stations to use on the air, typically on the top 2-3 stories of the day. Producers can choose to use those reporters to cover a big story (for a fee) or rewrite the story using the feed’s information, for one of their own anchors or reporters to read.
3. World News – Producers can find these stories on the wires and video news feeds just like national news
4. Interesting news from across the country – Here is where you’ll REALLY thank your news director for paying for CNN Newsource or your affiliate news feed. Stations across the country subscribe to these feeds and share video with each other so that when a station in Texas has a story about a really cool kid who saved his grandma by calling 9-1-1, you can air that too. These are the stories that make GREAT teases and can keep your viewers around through commercial breaks.
5. Weather – Luckily for producers, meteorologists typically handle their own content. Producers can help guide what that looks like, for example, if you want to do an extra weather segment tied to a local wildfire and you want the meteorologist to talk specifically about winds or lightning in that area, the producer should absolutely make that request. This is one spot where communication is critical to keep the flow of the show going.
6. Sports Headlines – This is another place where producers help guide instead of doing the heavy lifting. Most sports departments will create their own segments with input from the producer.

Where Does All That News Go?

The Rundown

Once a producer has decided a story is important enough to make their newscast, they’ll start organizing the stories in what’s called a show rundown. This is a place where everyone from the producer to the director, anchors and everyone in-between can see throughout the day what the newscast is looking like. Anchors can select a story and pre-read through a script, directors can plan for certain shots, and field crews can see where they’ve landed in the mix of stories and generally input their scripts from wherever they are on location.

The show producer fills out the majority of the rundown when they are choosing the stories they want to run. The rundown is also where the producer will indicate to the director which anchor is reading that story, what format it is (a reporter toss, a VO/SOT, a PKG, etc.) and in some stations where anchors move around the set. The producer will also indicate where that anchor will read the story. Producers will typically indicate whether or not a story includes extra graphic elements in the rundown and it’s also where they’ll give each story an allotted time and be able to see how much more news they need to fill the show.

There are two main news rundown programs, ENPS and iNews. Both work similarly but have a little different look. Ask any producer that’s used both, they’ll usually tell you they like the program they learned on better, but both do the job and are easy enough once you get the hang of them. Both have the feeling of a spreadsheet with columns and rows dedicated to certain information. Let’s look at what some of those most common columns are for:

Page – This is how a rundown is numbered so that when the scripts are printed, there’s a page number to keep things in order. In news, the shows are divided into blocks which encompass the airtime between commercial breaks. These blocks are alphabetical starting with A and generally ending with C or D for a 30-minute news program and G or H for a 60-minute newscast. Page numbers are tied to those blocks and numerals start over again at the beginning of each block.
Story Slug – This is the name of the story. Each station will have different ways of determining story slugs. In some stations, the story will be slugged the same thing in all newscasts to simplify archive searches in the future while in other stations the producer is free to give a story whatever slug they’d like (so long as it pertains to the actual information the story contains).
Segment – Here is where a producer indicates the story format. Reader, VO, VO/SOT, PKG, reporter story. Stories that have multiple elements, like an anchor intro to a reporter live shot then a reporter PKG, will typically take up multiple rows of the rundown with each element described in the segment column.
Anchor – Who is reading the story? Producers decide and indicate that here.
Estimated Duration – Here a producer can decide how much time they want to allot to each story. VOs typically should run :20-:25, VO/SOTs should run :35-:45. PKG times will vary by station and by content, but a general assignment daily report will typically run somewhere between 1:15-1:30. Since each show has a specific amount of air-time to fill, producers will also use this column to judge how close their content is to filling that time. News software will help calculate that time and generally indicate for the producer how “light” or “heavy” they are on time. Most producers are comfortable going into a newscast :30 light. This can allot for reporter stories that go long, unexpected delays or issues that can take extra seconds, etc.
Actual Duration – This column will populate on its own once a story is written. Both ENPS and iNews calculate the length of scripts as they’re being written. Producers need to pay attention to the actual time of scripts to make sure a story isn’t written for more time than they’ve given it.

Other columns in the rundown can include columns for graphic elements, assigned editors and notes for where editors can find the video for the story. There are also columns used only by the production team and director to indicate which camera will be used or where the video will come from once you’re on the air.

Stacking a Show

Putting everything into your rundown is referred to as stacking your show. It’s what will take the majority of a producer’s day. Typically, a producer will start with stories in one order and throughout the day, more stories come in, breaking news happens and what eventually goes on air is nowhere near how the show was stacked hours before.

News Blocks

Earlier we briefly described news blocks when it comes to page numbers in a rundown. Now, let’s talk in more detail about those blocks and how they differ from each other.

A Block – In most newscasts, the A Block is where the biggest news of the day belongs. It’s where your show kicks off and where most of the hard news will come. These stories are the most urgent and important for viewers to know about. Not for cat fashion shows and viral videos of water skiing squirrels – and if you get either of those references, you should get bonus points on your next test.
B Block – This second block following the first commercial break is usually reserved for stories that are on the lighter side (NOT murders, robberies, etc.). Producers also like to have stories with great video or other “teasable” stories that can help keep viewers watching as the news stories become less urgent as the newscast moves along.
The B Block is also where, in most 30-minute newscasts, you’ll find the main weather segment. How much time you spend on weather will depend on several things, your market, the forecast and your meteorologist. In some places, main weather, as it’s called, gets just 1:30 and in others, it gets 3:00 or more.
C Block – For some 30-minute shows, the C Block is where you’ll find the sports segment. This is another segment where the timing will be determined by the news of the day and general station practices.

In other 30-minute shows where sports do not have a presence, the C Block will be your end block. The last block of the show sometimes reserved for a kicker, think zoo babies, water skiing squirrels or other fun, very light hearted stories, and a goodbye.
In a longer, 60-minute newscast, the C Block can be reserved for just about anything. It’s a good place to throw in a few interesting consumer stories or health stories. The C Block is a shorter block that will get you to the bottom of the hour where you’ll restart things with another hard news block for the D Block.

Selecting a Lead

One of the biggest decisions of the day for a producer is answering the question “What is my lead?” This should be a story that’s urgent and has wide appeal. Some days there’s late breaking news that slides into the role of lead story, other days producers rely on reporters to find the biggest story of the day. If the lead story has been happening all day, producers need to figure out what’s the very latest or what comes next so that the viewer knows it’s not the same story they saw on an earlier newscast or read online hours ago.

Lead stories do not always have to be about death and destruction. Yes, the news should be harder, but given the right scripting and set-up, an argument can be made for many different stories to lead the newscast. Even stories about ducks stalling traffic on the interstate, yes, I led a show with that once.

Pacing

As a producer is stacking the show and inputting all of the stories he/she wants in the broadcast, they also need to consider the pacing of the show. Viewers get bored. Easily. They’re like toddlers. Or college students. To keep viewers watching, producers need to keep their attention. One way to do this is to keep the pace of the show “up.”  To maintain a fast-paced show, producers should not go from one live reporter to another, unless you’re in a big story, breaking news, team coverage on multiple-scenes type event. Having anchors toss out to a live reporter, who then tosses to a pre-recorded PKG and then gets tossed back, takes roughly 2:00. If you have three of those back to back you’ve just spent 6:00 of your newscast on just three stories. Instead, a producer should try to break up the bigger reporter stories with quick, shorter news that the anchors read.

Tight writing that’s straight to the point also helps pacing. You have such a limited amount of time to get information to viewers; every sentence should provide the viewer with NEW information and not repeat something that’s already been said.

Meters

Speaking of viewers’ attention spans, producers have another thing to keep in mind while stacking their show. TV News is driven by ratings, right? The higher the ratings, the higher the sales team can charge for commercial time. Ratings are important and a producer plays a key role in a show’s ratings, for obvious reasons.

In a nutshell, when it comes to ratings, a newscast is broken down into 15-minute segments. Shows get rating points for each 15-minute segment. Those are then averaged for the entire newscast. As long as a viewer watches for 5 minutes during that 15-minute window, they are counted in the rating. If they turn off the TV or change the channel after watching just 4:59 of the show, they count for nothing. BAM. Quickest description of ratings you’ll ever get. It’s a lot more complicated, but for our purposes here that’s all you need to know.

Meters help ensure viewers stick around for the time needed to count. Producers stack their blocks with meters in mind. The A Block should obviously be more than 5 minutes long so that you count all those viewers who watched for the first part of the news. Ideally, the A Block is more like 9-10 minutes long. Weather is generally stacked during that second quarter hour since it’s one of the very top reasons why viewers tune in to the news. If they stick around through at least 20-minutes after the show started, the station gets to count their viewership in both 15-minute segments of the newscast. Does your brain hurt yet? Just wait until you see a ratings report at your first job.

Showcasing

Good producers do more than just stack the news, write the news and get ready to go live. They showcase the news. This means they add elements that go beyond a typical anchor on-camera-VO-SOT-next story repeat. In the least, it means adding graphics that accent the story during anchor reads but even better would be a producer who researched extra information that added context, history or more details to a story and had special graphics built to help visually show the audience that information. Showcasing skills develop over time and new producers can find inspiration by watching other newscasts online. It’s always fun to see how other markets do the news and then try implementing something new in your own show.

Writing for TV – Reminders

You’ve covered this in detail in other chapters but here are a few more things to remember when it comes to writing specifically for TV:

1. Short sentences. Think ten words or less, that’s not a hard and fast rule but a number to keep in mind.
2. Keep things simple. Remember, your audience doesn’t have the luxury of going back and rereading a sentence that didn’t make sense the first time.
3. DON’T leave out important facts. Even :20 stories should have the who, what, when, where and why answered.
4. ALWAYS read what you’ve written out loud. You will catch things like mistakes or even just sentences that don’t quite sound right.
5. Write to video. DO NOT write a story without looking at the video you have.

Writing Teases – Reminders

1. Decide if the most interesting part of the story is amazing video, sound or some other detail.
2. Make a promise.
3. Be SPECIFIC. No, “we’ll have the latest, coming up next.” Duh. That’s your job.
4. Make sure your video doesn’t give away the story. Communicate with your editors.
5. Deliver whatever you promised.

Putting It All on the Air

Okay, now that your show is stacked, written, showcased and ready to go, it’s time to head to the control room. This is where a director will take the show you’ve carefully crafted and poured your heart and soul into for 8 hours and bring it to life on the air. When everything goes to plan, you’ll leave the booth feeling extremely proud of your team.

Timing

This is one of the main jobs of a producer during the live show. Both iNews and ENPS, and any other news producing software out there contain an internal timing function. Producers will control this timing bar as the show progresses. As you move from one story to the next, you’ll follow along with the timing bar which will help you know if stories are running on time or if something took longer than you allotted, like that reporter who always thinks their story is worth more than the 1:15 you gave him. When stories start to go heavy, as we say, you’ll have to figure out how to make that time back somewhere else. This can be done in a handful of ways, but the most common is to choose another story to kill or drop out of the show. That’s called floating. Floating the story in your rundown takes it out of the teleprompter, but it’s still very important to communicate and let your director and then anchors know about the story you’re dropping.
Producers should confirm their show’s end before air time, so they know exactly what time they need to be off the air. Some morning shows don’t have hard outs or specific times the next program will take over, but it’s still important to finish at a time that leaves the next hour or half-hour newscast beginning at its scheduled time. In some stations, producers will count the anchors down in their IFB for the last 10 seconds, in other stations, the director or floor director will give the anchors that count so that no one is still talking when you’ve faded to black.

Breaking News

Good producers are never afraid to add breaking news at the last minute. Trust me; breaking news is what you’ll live for. It adds excitement to your day and can leave you feeling extra fulfilled when you leave.

In today’s world, your viewers have up-to-the-minute news available right at their fingertips on a smartphone, laptop or tablet. If your show doesn’t have the VERY newest information, they will turn you off. Newscasts should be updated as much as possible leading up to and even during the show. As a brand new producer, this can feel daunting, but I promise with time adding breaking news while you’re timing the show you already created, will become second nature.

Why be a Producer?

If this sounds like an easy job, you clearly didn’t read the whole chapter. Producing is hard. It’s a jam-packed, non-stop day filled with writing and rewriting, researching, editing, checking in on reporters and eating lunch at your desk because you don’t have time to step away or your show won’t be done before deadline. There’s quite a bit of pressure on a producer in the newsroom. They spend the day making decisions that will shape the entire newscast that market will see. They’re making ethical calls, sometimes on the fly, and after everything goes on air and you head home to sleep, the rest of the team will pour over that night’s ratings and try and determine why you won or didn’t win.

Different producers are driven by different factors. Each has a different reason for loving what they do. Some producers love producing because they love to be in charge. They love calling the shots, especially in the control room. Other producers choose the job because they really enjoy writing. Some producers enjoy the job because it’s different every single day. You will never produce the same show twice, which can keep things interesting.

If you’ve never considered producing, I urge you to give it a shot. You may find it’s something you hate but you might also find that it’s something you love and something you excel at. Good producers are hard to find, and that means it’s a job where you’ll ALWAYS be in demand. Where jobs for on-air talent like reporters and anchors can be hard to come by, especially as stations try to cut down on costs, jobs for producers are abundant. Producers with proven ability can find themselves being fought over and that means, in the end, the producer can end up on top with the pick of where they want to work and how much they want to work for.