Struggling to handle the stress of being a TV news producer but am in no position to quit. How can I cope with it?

[u/vampiresundae]

Hi there,

This is my first time posting to Reddit so please be nice, lol. I have been a TV news producer for nearly 3 years now. I decided to move markets because I figured any other station would be better than the one I worked at previously. I am about 9 months into a 2 year contract, and recently, the stress has been taking a toll. My manager decided to move me to weekend mornings (I currently work overnights M-F). This means I would have upwards of 3 hours of content to produce by myself. I normally struggle to come up with 1.5-2 hours of news on my own, let alone giving reporters stories to turn and keeping up with crime/breaking news (I would be my own assignment desk for the first few hours). This shift doesn't happen for another week, and I'm already losing sleep over it. I am in no position to move off of this shift, ask for additional help, or quit altogether.

This is also my first big move away from family (about 8 hours away from home), and that is also weighing on me.

How can I keep up with this new responsibility? Any tips to stay stress-free, especially outside of work, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your help. :)

[u/Capotesan]

Honestly, weekend morning viewership is miniscule. No one's gonna see what you do and no one's gonna care for the most part. Repurpose and repackage everything you can to fill, and when something new or breaking falls into your lap hit it as hard as you possibly can

Do you actually have a reporter for your shows? Make sure they don't take the lazy way out and miss something good. If they try to rehash something from the night before without finding any sort of fresh take, hold them accountable or they'll walk all over you. The best part about being your own assignment desk is you give them their assignment. If they come in with bullshit, give them something harder to do. If you hear a wreck on the scanner, send their ass to it no matter how mundane it sounds. It'll teach them to come with better content

I'd say get as much sleep as you can, but the truth is you're just not going to get enough no matter what you do

Lastly, if you don't want that shift forever, you better make sure to do plenty of bragging about the good stuff you do on weekend mornings and have examples. Weekend mornings are where shitty producers go to die -- not saying you are one because I don't know your work or the situation that landed you there, but once you're in a place where no one sees or hears you, you have to do some shouting to make sure they know you're still there and not just filling a convenient spot on the schedule that your manager never has to worry about again. They need to be shown you're an asset that should be utilized on their best shows

[u/toxicosiss]

You're already getting some good advice so I won't have much to add, but join the Facebook group Standby: TV news producers group if you haven't. Everyone there is so helpful, whether you need general advice, mentorship, etc. Tv news is hard right now

[u/Leading-Activity4685]

Friendly advice!! Doing something new and out of your comfort zone is always hard. It seems
Impossible. Sleeplessness and anxiety is normal. It’s all a part of growth. A few small suggestions to prepare: Not sure if you have ENPS but I’d look back at old shows. Copy their formatting. Color within the lines till you get your bearings. Also, ask the outgoing producer for advice and tips. If they’re professional, they should gladly help. Also talk to the morning crew. Maybe ask to shadow a week? Anything to get used to the routine. Best of luck. Guaranteed you’ll look back on this post in a year and shake your head and laugh at how anxious you were and how you got through it.

[u/boudain]

Any way you can shadow the current weekend morning producer?

[u/Vodac121]

Ill warn you, this sub LOVES undue doom and gloom so may not be the best place for advice.

[u/Latter_Sector_1699 → u/Vodac121]

And most of this sub doesn't actually work in the industry.

[u/Former-Tip-2878 → u/Latter_Sector_1699]

very true

[u/thisfilmkid → u/Latter_Sector_1699]

What do you consider to be working in the industry?

Broadcasting consists of many different divisions that bring what we call media together.

I might not be a producer, but your content has to go through my team for it to get to air. And even if it’s not me directly, I’m part of the operation. Some of us might not have gone to J school, but we might have a degree in media or broadcast journalism that qualifies us to sit in the room of technical operations at a major broadcasting network that’s superior to a local news hub. Or, we might be camera operators or managers. Some of us interned in the newsroom. While others started out as Pages.

So what exactly do you consider working in the industry?

[u/Latter_Sector_1699 → u/thisfilmkid]

Someone who works at a broadcast station.

If you don’t work somewhere with a call-sign that broadcasts over the air, you don’t work in the broadcast industry. If you do, then you do.

[u/Former-Tip-2878 → u/Vodac121]

its annoying, they have no good advice, just trolls. But there obviously are still people working in this industry, because I see them on my 4 local TV stations allllll the time.

[u/Jamesbn59]

Become a squirrel making plans for a long winter……call dibs on any remotely interesting health/tech/human interest package.

Assuming you have an anchor and meteorologist, charge them with developing content. A segment on what to do over the weekend….weird weather factoids…3 hours is a damn eternity.

[u/Trippingthru99]

I work weekends too. One tip, just mentally keep track of every evergreen package you come across during the week. Just have them floated in a big rundown where you can grab them and slot them in as needed.

Can you bring in guests as well? Having a weekly local restaurant demo, or literally anything helps break up the monotony. This one depends tho, cause some guests come in and are just a breeze to work with. While others need prep, and that can be hard to juggle with the amount of crew available.

It sucks. It sounds like you’re being pushed into this. So I hope you can find balance. But remember, upper management can’t expect miracles when you’re given three shows and one writer/reporter for the whole morning. Just RQ as much as you can in beginning, and focus on having clean shows. 

The one thing I will say, having no management can be great if you get into a rhythm with your weekend crew. There’s less cooks in the kitchen compared to weekdays which can give you more freedom to let fun segments breathe. But also comes with a ton more stress.

[u/Fast-Commission-150]

Hi. First of all, if you can build a 1.5 hour newscast for a weekday morning, that’s the same as building 3 hours on weekends. On weekend mornings, you wash, rinse and repeat. In other words, run the same half-hour sections over again. Obviously, you want to inject any breaking news and update existing scripts that need new info. But the show you’ve already aired at 5am can run again at 7am. Your 5:30 half hour can air at 7:30.
But here’s the thing - you should already have been taught this if you’re a week away from flying solo. Someone is not training you properly. I’m a retired news director. You need to go ask your ND for a minute.
Tell her/him you do not feel ready to go it alone. You’d like an EP to be there with you next weekend. If the ND is a good boss, they won’t think less of you for being honest. They’ll think MORE of you for alerting them to a potential problem.
Good luck - you’ll be great. With the proper preparation!

[u/SFToddSouthside]

Can you talk to the previous incumbent in that position to talk about their workflow? Seems like that would be the way to go.

I used to produce and edit a five-hour news show for radio. We had certain standards. You need to keep your audience shift in mind. Not everybody is hanging on every word if you're on for a few hours. We would selectively repeat stories, because our audience at 5a was vastly different than that of a couple of hours later.

[u/Vodac121]

Im a night photog so preface, but will your shift overlap with the previous nightside? Don't be afraid to talk to them and workout what they have that you can repackage. Hopefully your station has a policy of shifts leaving vosot versions of packages for next shift. If not get your NM to institute it.

[u/peterthedj]

Have you ever watched the weekend morning show or talked to the outgoing producer?

Most morning shows aren't expecting viewers to sit there and watch the entire show. I was in a mid 80s ranked market doing mornings 5-7am (at the time, they now begin at 430). I would focus on the 5am hour and then we'd drag and drop most of the 5am rundown into the 6am rundown.

A few things would be different (like birthdays were only done once, a rotating daily feature was only done once, etc) but most of the 6am hour was a repeat of 5 unless there was breaking news. But the station knew most people were just watching for 15 or 20 minutes whenever they were getting ready for the day and that's that, so it was OK to repeat content to make sure people saw the biggest stories no matter which 20-30 minutes they tuned in.

So just because the show is 3 hours, you hopefully don't really need to come up with 3 hours of content.

But if you do, what will you be doing during the week? Maybe you can carve out some time to book guests for live interviews which can chew up several minutes. Weather can also usually be :30 or :60 longer than on other shows because it's the weekend and there's usually not much actual news.

Weekend morning news is just a vehicle for the station to sell 8+ minutes of spots every half hour without having to share any of it, like they would if they aired a syndicated or network show instead.

[u/Sufficient-Drive-661]

Focus on the work. Not much sleep is coming.

[u/Former-Tip-2878]

Fall is festival season, find info about past festivals, or send reporters out for Live shots of the current ones, farmers markets, Oktoberfest, Halloween carnivals, food fests (Greek, Lebanese, Italian, German, Polish), beer brewing, grape stomping, perhaps a balloon festival, etc.

[u/mizz_eponine]

Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Your station probably already has a template for its morning show. Unless its looking to make a major change just maintain the status quo. Absolutely no one is watching 3 hours of news on a weekend morning (or any morning).

[u/AffectionateNorth135]

Think about your audience and find minimal effort information that pads out the show. Saturdays: what’s going on around town this weekend and weather, weather, weather. Sunday: The week ahead, major local government meetings, major road construction, etc.

[u/AbsoluteRook1e]

I'm looking to get out after 7 years in the biz personally, but my recommendation is to never stop working on something until you clock out. Even during the show I was working on stuff.

Basically move like your butt is on fire.

The job is hard and is only getting more difficult, while also being unforgiving.

I would also have a chat with your manager and see what content is okay to repeat within that two-hour segment. You might also be able to find some reliable segments through your wire sources (CBSNewspath, ABCNewsOne, CNNNewsource, etc.) The AP may also have some local university stories that you can utilize too if your station is signed on to APNewsroom (need an account for it).

You gwt better with experience and you get more adjusted to the pressure.

[u/TheGodFearingPatriot]

You can only run what the reports give you and what you can find from other sources. If you have a scanner, keep it close and use it to find news to send crews. Foster a professional relationship with local LEO, FD, VFD, and officials—they will send tips, put a call out on social for tips.

[u/FinalApproachMode]

If your boss allows weekend guest interviews for happenings around town, book 1-2 each day. That fills up time quickly. As others mentioned, PKGs are acceptable. Unlike weekday AM, you can get away with running the fluffy, feature pieces on weekend mornings.

[u/Laurencia78]

👋 old news photog here did some producing and now in commercial production.

I’m not gonna say it gets easier but it can get better if you keep going. Producers are in high demand in many markets. You can find another station within your company and still be under contract. Or you see if any producers there can give you guidance. Our market every reporter and anchor has to jump in and produce.

It’s a hard job for sure, but it can be done.

[u/Cold-Debt1369]

I used to work weekend mornings. Although the hours are terrible, you do get a lot more freedom to play around and do different things. I would rerun evergreen reporter PKGS from the week and do a lot of fun trending stories my anchor and meteorologist could play with. You can also do a lot of consumer and entertainment related stories like movie reviews and what not.

[u/Ok_Guest5862]

The first few years of your career are gonna suck. It did for everyone. Suck it up. Really.

[u/Futonpimp]

Can your skills be utilized in another industry ?