WHAT DOES AN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DO?
Updated: Jun 12, 2025 - The Executive Producer oversees and manages the live production and studio presentation of news bulletins and current affairs programming to ensure the highest professional standards. This role involves collaborating with design and production teams to create innovative graphics and animations enhancing news stories and features. The producer also assigns and supervises the writing, packaging, and editing of news items, maintains exceptional quality, and supports the effective operation of the department.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Executive Producer
1. Executive Producer Job Description
- Ownership: Take ownership of all studio production reporting processes.
- Leadership: Direct production to create clear and measurable project goals.
- Planning and Tracking: Maintain effective planning and tracking systems to best suit the needs of each project.
- Budgeting: Manage project Profit and Loss and budgeting for both internal and external projects.
- RFP Management: Help to deliver successful RFPs to secure new project opportunities.
- Hiring: Assist in the studio's strategic hiring process.
- Resource Tracking: Track and update Red Kite's available resources for new and existing project opportunities.
- External Resource Management: Manage external development resources.
- Portfolio Management: Maintain Red Kite's portfolio to support business development needs.
2. Executive Producer Overview
- Content Creation: Create high-quality, entertaining, and engaging content that exceeds expectations for the local market.
- Strategy Refinement: Work with the Executive Director of Content Management to refine the content strategy, leveraging data, social trends, and media consumption habits.
- Collaboration: Work closely with producers, writers, and external creative teams to develop projects and assess for long-term viability.
- Relationship Building: Create and maintain robust relationships with production companies to develop new content ideas for Disney+.
- Pitch Review: Receive and review pitches from external production companies and develop ideas internally that are identified as high priorities.
- Scouting: Identify and scout potential production companies in the country and make Disney+ the preferred partner.
- Talent Management: Work with the best talent from the existing production companies, as well as identify brave new creative voices.
- Project Management: Work with production companies on budgeting, scheduling, tracking deliverables, and functions to ensure smooth delivery of projects.
- Feedback: Provide timely feedback to production companies to maintain the production schedule and to make sure all contractual obligations are met.
- Delivery: Deliver shows that are on budget and schedule.
3. Executive Producer Details and Accountabilities
- Team Leadership: Lead a team of Producers, Writers, and Photographers to deliver powerful and engaging newscasts, providing accurate and relevant up-to-the-minute information.
- Coaching: Help employees reach their full potential through regular coaching sessions, performance reviews, and goal-setting.
- Collaboration: Collaborate with the Manager of News and Content on story selection, placement, and treatment and assist in vetting scripts with a particular focus on strong storytelling.
- Timeliness: Ensure newscasts are current and updated in a timely fashion, adhering to a “right not first” mentality.
- Performance Culture: Build and maintain a culture of top performance, where accuracy is a must and creating market-leading newscasts is an expectation.
- Event Planning: Work with the management team and others, oversee planning for special events and live on-location broadcasts.
- Workflow Development: Assist the online team in developing workflows and communication among the teams that drive the delivery of video online in a timely fashion.
- On-Air Quality: Responsible for the on-air look, sound, and feel of TV newscasts.
- Production Management: Work with Anchors, Reporters, VJs, and Producers – build value around top stories in every newscast through proper show production, pacing, framing, and breaking news execution.
- Content Advocacy: Advocate for community-focused and sales-integrated content and assist in ensuring proper execution.
4. Executive Producer Additional Details
- Concept Review: Review concept pitches and provide deep and meaningful feedback to shape product visions via achievable plans that align with shared financial, strategic, and creative goals.
- Idea Generation: Introduce new game ideas or features where appropriate.
- Goal Setting: Set realistic but ambitious goals and expectations concerning product features, budgets, and timelines, and communicate production-related issues clearly to appropriate parties.
- Milestone Review: Review key milestones to ensure product pillars are evident and development is on track to achieve financial goals and meet or exceed consumer quality expectations.
- Competitive Analysis: Analyze competitive products and new business opportunities and make recommendations to the management team.
- Collaboration: Collaborate with the brand marketing and research teams to ensure the product is well-positioned with consumers and retailers/platform holders.
- Testing: Conduct playtesting and focus testing to support the goals of the project, as well as to develop vertical franchise plans.
- Partner Selection: Help select and vet external development partners.
- Team Management: Manage one or more publishing-embedded Producers, each responsible for individual products, through the full life cycle of product development.
- Resource Recommendation: Recommend appropriate resources to support the initiative and assist with recruiting and hiring.
- Relationship Building: Develop strong relationships to establish and maintain a reliable and timely flow of information and materials to all parties.
- Presentation Preparation: Prepare compelling presentation materials for internal decision-makers as well as external partners such as platform holders.
- Liaison: Liaise with non-gaming divisions (i.e., licensing, transmedia) to identify and capitalize on potential synergies.
5. Executive Producer General Responsibilities
- Organizational Planning: Work with key reports to create an organizational structure, processes, and project plan that allow the team to produce high-quality work efficiently on time and within budget with a high degree of predictability.
- Collaboration: Work collaboratively with other disciplines to drive results and outcomes.
- Team Motivation: Passionately articulate goals and team principles to help form a stimulating and fun work environment and culture.
- Risk Management: Identify and help guide the team around potential hazards that come up through the normal game development process.
- Best Practices: Help define and set best practices and make sure they are communicated across the team.
- Development Guidance: Help the game teams navigate all stages of the development process.
- Communication Enhancement: Help build and strengthen the communication between disciplines and locations.
- Quality Ownership: Own the quality of the product and be the player advocate for the team.
- Core Experience Communication: Effectively communicate the core experience of games to other parts of the Zynga organization.
- Resource Leveraging: Help ensure that the product leverages the ideas and resources of the larger organization.
6. Executive Producer Key Accountabilities
- Production Management: Overseeing and managing the production and studio presentation “live to air” of the news bulletins and current affairs programming to the highest professional standard.
- Graphic Design: Work with the design and production teams to create innovative, informative, and relevant graphics and animations to enhance the quality of individual news and current affairs stories, features, and news bulletins.
- Content Planning: Determine, in consultation with the Executive Editor and Managing Editor, the format, structure, and content of the NITV news and current affairs programming.
- Quality Assurance: Ensure the highest professional standards of production and presentation of all INACA programming.
- Content Supervision: Assign and supervise the writing, packaging, and editing of news items.
- Feedback: Provide formal and informal feedback to staff.
- Editing Standards: Ensure the highest standards of editing and writing are maintained.
- Team Feedback: Provide feedback to reporters/journalists/producers and other technical staff.
- Operational Management: Contribute to the effective day-to-day operation of the Department.
7. Executive Producer Roles and Details
- Team Leadership: Lead and manage a team responsible for all global business and economic news output from a growing international news and current affairs channel.
- Team Development: Develop a well-rounded and creative production team.
- Workflow Management: Establish an effective workflow for this team.
- Vision and Strategy: Display creativity and enterprise in responsibility for the overall vision, content, editorial planning, and day-to-day operations.
- Idea Generation: Guide team to present fresh ideas and approaches in presenting complex financial stories to a diverse global audience.
- Scheduling: Oversee planning calendar and teamwork schedules.
- Collaboration: Work collaboratively with other teams, such as assignment editors, operations, creatives, reporters, digital producers, and guest bookers.
- Budget Management: Actively monitor and manage the project budget across all areas of development.
- Communication and Culture: Enable and ensure strong communication and culture across all areas of the studio.
- Risk Management: Map out risk mitigation plans for near-term and long-term project deliverables.
- Scope Management: Coordinate with a team to understand the scope better for complex features.
- Strategic Initiative Deployment: Work with leadership on the deployment of studio-level strategic initiatives.
8. Executive Producer Responsibilities and Key Tasks
- Staff Development: Develop staff through effective performance management, including goal setting, annual appraisals, regular coaching, and performance discussions.
- Diversity: Ensure that staffing, sourcing, and content reflect the diversity of the region.
- Culture Building: Foster a culture that supports creativity, experimentation, team play, content excellence, and diversity of thought.
- Event Strategy: Develop and execute a live events strategy to grow the show's audience and engage with the community directly.
- On-Demand Content Strategy: Develop and execute an on-demand content strategy for the program, including consideration of social platforms, the web, podcast distribution, and emerging platforms like smart speakers and NPR One.
- Grant Writing: Participate in grant and report writing and maintain strong artistic relationships with external partners.
- Partnership Building: Cultivate strategic partnerships through public and grassroots appearances to promote the company.
- Visual Identity Development: Work with the creative arts team and staff to develop visual identities for productions and marketing.
- Stakeholder Management: Communicate, discuss, work with, consult with, consider, negotiate, and discuss all aspects of the production with all key project stakeholders, with the best outcome for the company and project in mind.
- Risk Management: Own issues and risks, identifying them as early as possible, and finding mitigation and resolutions.
- Budget Management: Oversee budgets, authorize, manage, and track expenditures.
9. Executive Producer Duties and Roles
- Industry Knowledge: Be the go-to person for all things related to Video at Narcity Media and stay on top of industry trends.
- Team Leadership: Hire, train, coach, and lead a team of full-time and freelance Producers, Videographers, Video Editors, and Hosts who will be in charge of launching new shows for Narcity and MTL Blog across North America.
- Team Management: Manage the video team members on a day-to-day basis (conducting reviews, career development plans, and team reviews) remotely.
- Project Management: Manage and structure all video projects and series (local content), oversee operations, distribution, and budgets, and delegate tasks to reach daily and monthly quotas.
- Content Development: Develop new video series and brands that will generate massive engagement from Narcity audiences, own all aspects of production.
- Performance Management: Responsible for viewership growth and video content performance on Narcity’s website and social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat).
- Data-Driven Strategy: Use data and platform insights to develop content ideas/strategies.
- Quality Assurance: Develop and enforce Narcity Media’s video values, quality standards, protocol, and best practices across all verticals and formats.
- Brand Alignment: Respect brand and quality guidelines set by the Editor-in-Chief for all content, along with ensuring the quality of video content is impeccable and innovative.
- Collaboration: Work in collaboration with Media Sales teams to develop new branded series and create sales decks, work in collaboration with the branded content Studio for production.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with Product, Marketing, and Data teams to build advanced audience segments, marketing and PR campaigns for video series, and innovative video strategies to engage, grow, and monetize audiences.
- Brand Representation: Represent Narcity Media at industry events and serve as a brand ambassador.
- Goal Achievement: Create, meet, and exceed quarterly video OKRs and revenue goals.
10. Executive Producer Roles and Responsibilities
- Team Development: Assist game production team focused on titles developed in Japan in growing their skillset and sharing worldwide development best practices across global teams.
- Process Implementation: Review, define, and implement internal processes and best practices for Product Development.
- Production Support: Support internal production teams and external development teams in achieving quality, budget, and schedule goals.
- Contract Management: Assist internal production teams with contract, vendor, and product management, as well as ongoing product monitoring and status updates.
- Global Collaboration: Propose, lead, and participate in global production initiatives to communicate across global teams more effectively, hit quality goals on a global basis, and prepare the global production teams for future trends.
- Stakeholder Reporting: Report and provide transparency for internal stakeholders, including the executive team.
- Project Management: Be involved with and own the schedule, process, and plan of delivery to ensure high-quality and timely development.
- Business Model Development: Help develop innovative business models and bring experience in product development to support marketing and sales requests and strategies.
- Partner Evaluation: Consult with internal business teams to conduct due diligence on external development partners to ensure proper knowledge, processes, and tools.
- Product Evaluation: Iterate and improve the internal strategic product evaluation methodology in collaboration with Business Development, Sales, Marketing, and Production teams worldwide to ensure the right products start development with risks identified.
- Deal Management: Work with Business Development, finance, and legal teams to make sure the deal terms are the right ones for the project.
- Market Analytics: Work with the marketing team to help identify specific data on target market segmentation and be highly knowledgeable in data analytics, tools, and actions, including reporting changes, trends, and so forth beyond the public release of a project.