ABSTRACT
In the literary world, most writers work on assignment and are either staff or freelance editorial writers. Publications have editors, who edit and often alter the content of what writers write, and editors in turn have publishers who decide what content goes to print or online that ultimately reaches the consumer. In a studio and network environment there are development executives who are the buffers and filters to the access of the higher-level executives who are the decision makers. The way that most studios operate is that the director's cut of a picture is screened for an audience recruited by National Research Group (NRG), which is a part of Nielsen Entertainment. NRG supplies several services on a weekly basis to the major studios, one of which gives them all the same information upon which to make their decisions about release dates and the positioning of certain types of films competitively against the competition from other studios, known as "competitive positioning".
