Advice Please.

[formerphotog]

I've been in the business for more than 20 years now...first starting as an editor, then a photographer, moving to the assignment desk. For the past year, I've been given an opportunity to learn and begin producing in addition to my desk duties. Now, a new producer has finally been hired to do weekends and I become the POLR. (Producer of Last Resort) My current news director who came in after I began producing said that I just didn't have the experience that someone in this market should have. I can't say that I blame him. If I were in his position, I'd probably think the same. He's been good to me though and appreciate the opportunity I had.

I'm in a top 5 market now.

I need your advice. I want to work my way into newsroom management...EP, Ops Mgr, Ass. ND, ND. I'm able to do just about everything there is to do in the newsroom except on-air. Just not pretty enough for that. I believe I've got a solid skill set but admit that I have much to learn as a line producer. Where I'm at is with a truly bare-bones operation doing only one show a day...so I'm lacking many of the "bells and whistles" that many producers have in their toolbox...though I do the best I can with what I have to work with.

Which way do I go? What is a REALISTIC market size that I should be looking in? I consider myself a little different than a young producer starting in the business...I've got 20 years of related experience in my background.

Any ideas on what might be a good track for me to follow?

Anyone know a good shop that's looking for a producer where I wouldn't be eligible to apply for food stamps?

Though I've been with my current employer for a decade, have as secure a job that anybody could expect these days... it's really time for me to move on...and see what I can do for myself and my career.

Any input/guidance you guys/gals could offer would be most appreciated.

[John M.]

Network and research.

Have you kept in contact with former bosses? If not, that's not a good sign since you need this sort of networking in the move-every-two-years world of news management.

But if you have, that's the first place I'd go for advice. That would also be the first place I went looking for opportunities.

Next I'd learn the names of news managers who began as photogs and seek them out. Lane Michaelsen (sp?) is the most well-known. I think he works a corporate job for Gannett now after serving as news director for at least two of its stations.

Dan Bradley, the VP of news for Media General, began as a photog, moved to the assignment desk and into management from there.

Rich Murphy, now Senior Web Producer at WTTG in Washington, went from chief photog in Tampa to special projects EP at a rival station there to managing editor at WTTG before his current job.

There are others. Find them. Pick their brains about how they did it. Chief photographer is an obvious route for a photog to take to management. Most have at least some input into hires and management of the shooters.

[Delta Dawn]

Anyone know a good shop that's looking for a producer where I wouldn't be eligible to apply for food stamps?.
I was surprised to see a job listing yesterday for a producer in market 8 where the pay was 31-thousand.

I made that much as a reporter at my second job.

Why does anyone put up with the headaches for that pay?

[Spike]

Chief photographer is an obvious route for a photog to take to management.

Most chief photog positions are dead ends. The position is like second-class management and considered more like a foreman to keep the rabble organized rather than actual decision makers. There are obvious exceptions, of course, but the OP is in a much better position to move into management from the desk than from chief.

[John M.]

the OP is in a much better position to move into management from the desk than from chief.

That's a subjective judgment on your part. One of the people I cited above did parlay a chief's job into a management career.

Desk jobs can be dead-ends too -- people whose authority reaches no further than the volume knob on the scanner.

Maybe it's what you make of whatever job you have. Just a guess.

[southwesternguy]

I was surprised to see a job listing yesterday for a producer in market 8 where the pay was 31-thousand.

I made that much as a reporter at my second job.

Why does anyone put up with the headaches for that pay?

Excellent question.

[Spike]

That's a subjective judgment on your part. One of the people I cited above did parlay a chief's job into a management career.

There are obvious exceptions, of course, but the OP is in a much better position to move into management from the desk than from chief.

[formerphotog]

Any ideas about realistic market sizes I could ask about Asst. ND or EP positions?

[Roy Hobbs]

I want to work my way into newsroom management...EP, Ops Mgr, Ass. .

Ummmm for that fourth one MediaLine's Mighty Dyckerson is a living example.

[SamG]

There are obvious exceptions, of course, but the OP is in a much better position to move into management from the desk than from chief.
From a chief photog to ops manager and then to AND and ND. A very reasonable ladder I think. Or CP to AE and on up.

[Spike]

From a chief photog to ops manager and then to AND and ND. A very reasonable ladder I think. Or CP to AE and on up.

There are obvious exceptions, of course, but the OP is in a much better position to move into management from the desk than from chief.

Most of the Ops manager positions I've encountered have been dead ends and not good choices for people who want to be news directors. Operations manager is a technical management position with very little to do with news.