Wolfe says assignment editors are like “orchestral conductors,” while additional metaphors that float through interviews stem from human biology. The capable assignment editor, she observes, will “know all the information”: facts to support a package’s viability, sources that a reporter can contact to round it out, and whether a story is worth any airtime to begin with.Ī presence like that in a newsroom matches the significance of an engine in a car, as one assignment editor puts it. “The biggest way to tell the difference is when you work in a newsroom that has a poor assignment desk and then you work in a newsroom with a strong assignment desk.” “Assignment editors are absolutely underappreciated in their role in a newsroom,” says Julie Wolfe, news director at Tegna’s NBC affiliate KING Seattle. Always, they’re relegated to behind-the-scenes grunt work, and rarely do they get their due. Digital technology has also chipped away at the relevance of many dinosaur-era tools assignment editors used to rely on so heavily.īut as the job changes, assignment editors remain a dedicated folk, dug into the frontlines of journalism’s war with mis- and disinformation, while doing their best to help generate broadcasts with wider-reaching community impact. ![]() ![]() ![]() In other words, story dispersal in a newsroom has increasingly become a team effort, with reporters and producers having more of a say in what makes it to broadcast. Purveyors of the newsroom’s assignment desk today, however, are typically less head coach and more quarterback, fronting colorful offenses filled with audibles, option plays and other collaborative trickery that’s designed to always push the ball forward.
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