I want to be a PRODUCER!

The most valuable thing I've learned about myself this summer is that I would rather pursue a career in producing than reporting.

At my 2nd job, at High Noon Entertainment, there's a surprising amount of ex-reporters (many of whom used to work at the same place I'm interning now: KMGH) Naturally, my curiousity drove me to question these people... why the change? didn't they enjoy being a reporter? What did they like about producing at High Noon instead?

At the same time, I have really been bonding with the News Producers at KMGH... many of them started out as Reporters, or at least that was their original intent.

Then I thought back to this girl who came in and spoke to Ray Fanning's "preparing for an internship" class about how her internship led her to Producing, instead of Reporting. At the time, I thought she was nuts... but now I realize just how wise her advice was.
As a matter of fact, if Ray Fanning reads this: I'd really like him to tell me who that girl was and get her contact info or something...

Producers can move up in market size quicker (I'm a big city girl myself- I hope I never live anywhere smaller than Missoula!) And there is less competition... I used to think that people would be too self-conscious to really want to want their face on TV all the time, but as it turns out, everyone has a vain side to them and EVERYONE wants their 15 minutes of FAME.

The scary part is, that there really aren't any older wrinkly women anchoring newscasts or hosting tv shows... Whereas, there are PLENTY of handsome older men still starring on TV.

Producers get to delve into every story and rewrite anything they deem neccessary. Whereas, reporters dig deep into one story and narrow their focus. In all of the stories that I have gone out on, I get WAY attached to the story I'm working on. I hate having to end it and leave it behind...

But of course there's a CATCH: My favorite part of reporting is and always has been the interview process. I love meeting new people. I love talking to strangers. And lord help whoever sits next to me on the bus, because I see them as a friend I haven't met yet.

The light at the end of this tunnel is that Producers oftentimes get to work on side-projects, like putting together a longer PKG, and working on perfecting it over time...

My Internship coordinator here, Robin Hoffman, (who I rarely saw at the beginning of my internship, but now makes time for me when I ask for it) says that in this increasingly-shrinking business, someone who is capable of being a producer-editor-web updater will go far.