Many TV News Directors Suffer Under Work-Related Pressures

For news directors in the world of high-pressure television, marital and health problems are common, according to a University of Missouri School of Journalism survey.

A survey of 453 television news directors by Vernon Stone, a journalism professor at the University of Missouri, documented the profession’s anxieties.

Job-related personal problems were reported by 54% of the news directors. Marital problems were the most prevalent. Of the news directors who had been married, 88% said their work had caused problems in their marriages.

When asked to describe their marital problems, news directors most often told of not having enough time for their spouses. Stone said irregular working hours, working during holidays and being on call were frequently listed by the respondents. Moving from city to city was named also as a significant marital problem associated with the job.

About one-fourth of the survey’s respondents reported health problems. Stress, ulcers, hypertension and heart attacks were named as the four leading health problems experienced by the news directors.

When asked “Do you work best under pressure?”, nine out of 10 answered yes.

Stone said he expected the health problems to be more prevalent for news directors who said they did not work best under pressure. However, the survey indicated job-related health problems are about the same for those who said they worked best under pressure and those who did not.

“There continues to be a lot of job turnover, and the pressure to deliver solid ratings on a low budget is high for news directors,” Stone said. “If things have changed, they have not changed for the better.”