Welcome to my first blog post.. As a life long producer I tend to write less formally and more conversationally.  I tend to use too many ellipsis’, #IYKYK. So if you see grammar issues please give me a hall pass. I’m still recovering from years of writing active voice even when the even has passed, the lack of adjectives and the over use of the ellipse.  

Now to my view.   It’s a great time to get a job especially if you are a producer.  More newscasts equals more jobs with less available producers out there. The bad news, the producer need will make it more challenging for small and midsize markets to find producers.   Consider, most stations paid producers less than reporters, yet when you consider without a producer you cannot get a show on the air.  You can see the value in producers, as stations fill hours of programming a day with local news and/or programming.

What can be done? Almost every group is doing something and I applaud that. What we need to do as an industry is to evangelize now and loudly to the j schools why students need to look at producing.  We need to start in their sophomore year talking to them, not in their senior year, they are already spoken for in most cases.  We need to get the part time jobs and internships back.  We need to pay producers more than reporters. Many broadcasters are already doing these and several other things, but let’s face it, the industry is playing catch up now. This is not a quick fix, heck, it took us years to get to this point and it will take years to fix it. 

You can connect with me via email at: [email protected] or social media

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