They aspired to production, management or a position outside television. It's a pipeline to management, the long-term goal for roughly a third of the producers. A fourth expected to move into management slots as their next positions. Some entry-level applicants take jobs as producers to get a foot in the door for the reporting job wanted in the first place. Supply is lower and demand higher for production jobs than for reporters.
TV production is good background for Web or industrial TV positions.
The number of cases in our sample was lower than for most other positions. The assignment desk has the highest turnover in the typical TV news operation. Two years was the average tenure of the survey's assignment editors. Table 8 finds assignment editors most often wanting to be news directors and expecting their next job to be as ND or assistant news director. Like executive producers, assistant news directors most often saw their long-term goal as news director or general manager, top rung of the station ladder.