| Topic Name: |
IF YOU HAD TO HIRE A FIRST TIME NEWS DIRECTOR |
| Message Name: |
Producers and here's why |
| Date Posted: |
06/11/2005 |
| In Reply To: |
You can tell thewanderer is one of those office bodies. Nowadays, nearly all news managers come from the ranks of producers. Within the confines of newsroom walls, they have much more opoprtunity to schmooze and get ahead politically. With producers heavily populating the ranks of news directors, they control the industry politically. This includes making damn sure that reporters and others under them "never look at the big picture" and "can't do anything except write packages" thus ensuring their "lack of experience and qualification" for a management position. The one photographer I had as a news director was a good logistics man, but he didn't have a clue when it came to taking on big stories that might ruffle a few feathers. He expected his reporters be the first to receive tips from the local police but had no idea what to do if the local police chief was implicated in scandal. The station attorney had final say on anything controversial. Bottom line: a slick product that was nonetheless largely irrelevant. |
| Message: |
I don't know any reporters who have a clue as to what the ND does.
He/she doesn't sit in an office all day assigning stories and reading scripts and making a reporter's life hell.
The ND must know how to work w/in the corporate machine, handle budgets, set redesigns, operations, creative services, hiring/firing for all positions in a newsroom.
This job should really require an MBA along with experience as an EP.
But since my choices are between a reporter or producer -- I would choose the producer for exactly the reason most of the reporters on this thread wouldn't...because a producer knows how to work w/in the corporate machine. Also, not to generalize, but reporters usually only know how to focus on one thing/one story at a time. Producers must be aware of multiple things beyond a single story or even a single show, they spend a great deal of time working with other departments.
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