Demands of Digital Media Jobs: A Very Particular Set of Skills

1.“https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/blog/linkedin-workforce-report-may-2017” 2.“http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/linkedin-users/” 3.“https://digiday.com/careers/day-life-one-community-manager-responds-birchboxs-social-comments/” 4.“https://digiday.com/media/data-scientists/” 5.“https://digiday.com/media/rise-publisher-video-polymath/” 6.“https://www.axios.com/the-next-start-up-havens-2335458587.html”

2. What's in a Name?

5. What's Next?

4. Location, Location, Location

3. Data Matters

1. The Current Media Landscape

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Chances are if you’re working in digital media, data is going to factor into what you do in some capacity. How can you make sure you’re making the most of it? The majority of professionals keep up with new skills by taking matters into their own hands, and there’s no time like the present to start getting ahead of the curve.

How Brands and Publishers Use Content Analytics

What's Next?

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MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

1.51%

3.67%

2.46%

3.10%

PUBLISHING JOBS

BOSTON, MA

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

7.58%

25.21%

8.27%

12.70%

PUBLISHING JOBS

NEW YORK, NY

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

2.15%

1.45%

1.16%

1.97%

PUBLISHING JOBS

PHILADELPHIA, PA

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

0.71%

1.80%

1.47%

2.12%

PUBLISHING JOBS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

2.75%

3.25%

4.58%

2.48%

PUBLISHING JOBS

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

0.63%

0.21%

0.75%

0.77%

PUBLISHING JOBS

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

1.41%

3.32%

2.87%

2.37%

PUBLISHING JOBS

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

2.63%

10.11%

2.63%

3.84%

PUBLISHING JOBS

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

2.28%

1.32%

2.02%

1.36%

PUBLISHING JOBS

DALLAS, TEXAS

MARKETING & ADVERTISING JOBS

ONLINE MEDIA JOBS

NEWSPAPER JOBS

1.45%

1.74%

.66%

PUBLISHING JOBS

DENVER, COLORADO

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

ONLINE MEDIA

NEWSPAPER

PUBLISHING

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

ONLINE MEDIA

PUBLISHING

NEWSPAPER

Explore the map to learn more.

We also compared the list to the top ten emerging startup hubs, as reported on by Axios, which proposes new startups could create more than one million new jobs each year. It’ll be interesting to see whether digital media job availability on LinkedIn fluctuates to reflect this potential.

In the LinkedIn network we examined jobs associated with publishing, online media, newspapers and marketing and advertising. Of those jobs, it was interesting to see how many were located in major metro areas.

New York City isn’t the only place to get a job in digital media – though odds are good you’ll find one there.

Location, Location, Location

analytics 79,773 results

editing 23,682 results

google analytics 5,809 results

Remote 103,464 results

Publishing 17,706 results

VIdeo 66,286 results

Social Media 66,286 results

Digital Media 12,006 results

Journalism 8,972 results

research 292,904 results

data 527,030 results

Rollover chart to explore

Skills keyword on LinkedIn

They also found the majority of local journalists are teaching themselves digital skills.

75%

79%

38%

70%

75% teach themselves

79% read articles on sites such as Nieman Lab, Poynter, and MediaShift

38% learn through formal training or conferences

Almost 70% of the 420 survey respondents reported spending more time on the digital aspects of their jobs than they did two years ago. 70% of survey respondents also said they use “digital performance metrics to measure social media engagement, website unique visitors, and time spent on a page,” though the level of application varies.

Sofia Booth, VP of Audience and Growth at Clique Media Group

We're strongest when we're putting actionable data in the hands of the teams that are creating or distributing content on a daily basis - from our graphic designers, to editors, and social strategists. We believe that data does not live in a silo, but instead, extends throughout all facets of our organization. It's our lifeline to our audience."

When searching for the skill ‘data’ on LinkedIn, the term turned up over 527,000 results, across industries. Digital-specific skills such as social media and analytics returned more search results than traditional publishing terms such as journalism, editing, and publishing, but in reality these terms aren’t mutually exclusive.

A recent survey conducted by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found that local journalists are embracing digital tools.

Data Matters

Quartz hires video journalists who are responsible for the entire video production process from conception to editing.

Mashable, HuffPost, Vocativ, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times are among the publishers who started hiring dedicated data scientists as early as 2014.

At Birchbox, this person’s role is to respond to customer comments on the brand’s social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Christine Roberts, Senior Editor - Growth and Emerging Platforms at HuffPost

"We kicked off a sprint around writing entertainment content tailored for teens and using performance data, we have already learned a lot about the topics and figures they care about the most. Data is playing a large role in the strategies we're crafting."

Responsibilities include: Using content analytics to understand readers and develop content distribution strategies.

Kiki Von Glinow, Director - Growth and Analytics at HuffPost

HuffPost has made a big shift over the past year from thinking primarily just content-first to experimenting with audience-first strategies. Content is only as good as the impact it has with an audience."

Content-focused roles are in-demand, from Editor to Content Analyst to Social Media Marketing to Content Manager. Whether it’s at a publisher or a brand, when you’re dealing with content, data literacy gives you an advantage. Data helps reveal how your audience responds to your content and initiate a positive feedback loop of telling stories that put your readers first.

With the emergence of live video and platforms like Snapchat, it may be that video is an expected skill for many digital media professionals to have to some degree, whether or not video is their specialty.

Cavan Sieczkowski Deputy Director - News & Analytics at HuffPost

Last year, we sought to set benchmarks for ourselves in order to keep track of performance and be more aware of our collective successes and failures. Setting attainable goals tied to audience views and productivity made the overall process achievable."

There are 67 Audience Development roles and 49 Data Analyst roles available. There are more open positions for Graphic Designers and UX Designers in Publishing than in the other three fields combined. Publishers are looking for roles that call upon an understanding of audience analytics, expertise with data, and ability to craft high quality digital experiences for readers.

Sofia Booth, VP of Audience and Growth at Clique Media Group

As a digital marketer in today's saturated marketplace, it's imperative to think both creatively and analytically. Data informs what we do, and it’s the creative - editorially, visually, and in the way we package and distribute our content - that creates engaging experiences for our audience."

Digital media professionals are expected to have a facility with data.

Digital media professionals should have a presence on social media and/or be able to distribute content across multiple digital channels.

Overall, job title searches can be boiled down into a couple trends about skills where digital media professionals excel:

What kinds of jobs are out there now on LinkedIn? A keyword search for job titles by industry – which included publishing, online media, marketing and advertising, and newspaper – offered some interesting insights.

The four fields examined called for a significant number of content-focused roles.

Surprisingly, there are very few job postings for a video specialist.

Search results for roles in the Publishing field point to a digital shift.

Video Journalist

Data scientist

Community manager

Audience Engagement Editor

Over the past few years, new positions have surfaced from leading social media and publishing companies:

New job titles are appearing all the time in the digital media space. Understanding these roles, and the trends surrounding them, can help you bridge any skills gap.

What's in a name?

0.07%

3.47%

1.88%

0.33%

1.15%

0.03%

0.81%

0.42%

0.54%

Rollover chart to explore values

The percentages are small yet significant. For example, 1.15% of companies in this network fall under Marketing and Advertising. It feels like a low percentage, but it represents 135,000 company search results.

% of Companies (worldwide)

% of jobs (U.S.)

NEWSPAPERS

INTERNET

MARKETING & ADVERTISING

ONLINE MEDIA

PUBLISHING

.00%

.25%

.50%

.75%

1.00%

1.25%

1.50%

1.75%

2.00%

2.25%

Here’s a breakdown of the percent of company and job search results for a network consisting of almost 12 million worldwide company search results and over 4 million jobs search results for the United States that are within industries associated with digital media:

50,000+

3,000,000

20,000

138,000,000

skills are available for members to add to their profiles to showcase their professional brands

jobs are posted on LinkedIn every month

companies use LinkedIn to recruit

workers have LinkedIn profiles

In April 2017, LinkedIn reported reaching half a billion users. In the United States:

Before diving into specific job titles and skills, here’s what data shows us about the digital media industry overall.

The Current Media Landscape

The world of digital media is rapidly changing. From new methods of distributing content, to entirely fresh types of marketing teams and business models, it’s up to the employees to develop and maintain skills in order to remain in-demand. To help, we turned to data from LinkedIn reports and interviews with industry pros for answers.

A Very Particular Set of Skills: Demands of Digital Media Jobs