NorthPine: Upper Midwest Broadcasting

Newsroom Notes: A Closer Look at Skill Sets in a Modern Newsroom

After a previous post about the TV news hiring problem that mentioned some of the key skills of various job functions in a newsroom, I thought it would be helpful to list the skills in more detail. These are my perspective; every station’s expectations are slightly different. Hopefully this information will be useful both to people aspiring to a career in TV and to viewers who wonder how it all comes together!

First, here’s a look at skills that apply to all jobs in a newsroom:

Reporter skills:

Photographer skills:

Multi-media journalist (MMJ)

Anchor skills:

Producer skills:


While stations have seemingly had trouble filling every position recently, producing is a position that’s always been hard to fill — but it’s vital to getting the newscast on the air. Being a job that’s invisible to the viewer, many aspiring journalists don’t see it as an option. If you’re a “news junkie” who has strong opinions on how a newscast should be presented, then producing may be the perfect job for you!

Jon Ellis has worked in small-market TV news for 20 years and may be biased towards producing, since that’s how he began.

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