How To Become A Director Of New Media: What It Is and Career Path

What is a director of new media and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Yash Egami,

Harlan Spotts Ph.D.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a director of new media. For example, did you know that they make an average of $39.88 an hour? That's $82,946 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 10% and produce 33,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a director of new media?

Yash Egami

VP, The One Club

A recent Forrester report says that the ad industry will lose 50,000 jobs through 2021, with 35,000 of them already lost since the pandemic. The traditional ad agency model was already in trouble, with many brands hiring away talent and creating their own in-house agencies. Add to that the recent reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement, and what we're seeing is an industry that is being forced to go through monumental change in order to survive.

While traditional roles like art director or copywriter are on the decline, the good news is that, in an effort to reinvent themselves, agencies are seeking creatives with digital skills like UX design and programming. The rise of in-house creative departments has also meant more opportunities for job seekers within brands rather than agencies. And because of the demand for more diversity from clients and those within advertising, recruiters are making more of an effort to hire multicultural talent.

At The One Club for Creativity, we've been at the forefront of change in the industry through our diversity and inclusion, professional development and gender equality programs. We recently hosted our annual multicultural career fair, "Where Are All the Black People?" that brought together thousands of diverse talent with 40 agencies and companies looking to hire. We launched One School, a free online program for Black creatives who want to get into the industry but don't have a portfolio or the economic means to afford to go to ad school. And we're working on upskilling courses for professionals who want to reinvent themselves or keep up with the changing demands of our industry.

So if you're a recent graduate who specializes in art direction, our advice would be to keep an open mind about what kind of company you want to work for and think about expanding your skillset to include digital skills so that you can future-proof your career. Where you are isn't as important because, since the pandemic, agencies have become more comfortable with working remotely and they are more open to having a workforce not centered on the traditional agency hubs, like New York or Los Angeles.

ScoreDirector Of New MediaUS Average

Salary

6.5

Avg. Salary $82,946

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.1

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.23%

Asian 8.15%

Black or African American 3.04%

Hispanic or Latino 8.67%

Unknown 5.32%

White 74.58%

Gender

female 30.25%

male 69.75%

Age - 38

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 - 38

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.5

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a director of new media

Explore director of new media education requirements

Most common director of new media degrees

Bachelor's

69.3 %

Master's

14.4 %

Associate

10.6 %

Start to develop specific director of new media skills

Skills	Percentages
Website Traffic	20.32%
Content Strategy	10.31%
Video Production	9.81%
Business Development	5.70%
Facebook	3.99%

Complete relevant director of new media training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New directors of new media 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 a director of new media based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real director of new media resumes.

Research director of new media duties and responsibilities

Manage strategic vendor relationships, including RFP, contract negotiation, SLA compliance.
Purchase, set up and manage the digital media workstations and DVD authoring suites.
Lead web marketing efforts including corporate websites, member-only sites, SEO, Google ad words, and e-mail marketing campaigns.
Create facebook, twitter, e-newsletter templets.

Get director of new media experience

Generally, it takes 8-10 years to become a director of new media. The most common roles before becoming a director of new media include sales manager, internship team lead and director.

Prepare your director of new media resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your director of new media 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 a director of new media resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable director of new media resume templates

Build a professional director of new media 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 director of new media resume.

Apply for director of new media jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a director of new media job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do directors of new media rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Director of new media reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Pros

I love content and marketing overall. As a former journalist turned marketer, I love connecting with audiences and catering to what their interests may be, whether they know it or not yet. As a content director, I get involved in various departments like business development, finance, presidental level and others. Normally, most expect to only be involved in marketing efforts, but that simply isn't true.