How To Become An Assistant News Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is an assistant news director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an assistant news director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.07 an hour? That's $54,222 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -5% and produce -5,500 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAssistant News DirectorUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $54,222

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.7

Growth rate -5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.27%

Asian 6.24%

Black or African American 3.69%

Hispanic or Latino 8.42%

Unknown 4.63%

White 76.76%

Gender

female 39.44%

male 60.56%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

6.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.3

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an assistant news director

Explore assistant news director education requirements

Most common assistant news director degrees

Bachelor's

81.7 %

Associate

8.2 %

Master's

6.3 %

Start to develop specific assistant news director skills

Skills	Percentages
Editorial Content	16.60%
News Content	8.51%
Facebook	7.89%
Story Development	7.07%
Executive Producers	5.57%

Complete relevant assistant news director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New assistant news directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an assistant news director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real assistant news director resumes.

Research assistant news director duties and responsibilities

Manage talent, personalities and deadlines from numerous departments within ABC and KOAT to produce cohesive, error-free broadcast.
Respond to media inquiries and requests; coordinate with PIO's, videographers and photographers.
Develop story ideas and build strong relationships with producers and creative teams of CNN and CNNI programs.
Upload packages on YouTube and mountaincreek.com

Get assistant news director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become an assistant news director. The most common roles before becoming an assistant news director include executive producer, news director team lead and producer.

Prepare your assistant news director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your assistant news director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an assistant news director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable assistant news director resume templates

Build a professional assistant news director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your assistant news director resume.