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

What is a media relations director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Jamie Shaw,

Jody McBrien

In today's digital age, the Media Relations Director is at the forefront of brand management and engagement with a company's audience. This is a position worth looking into if you're looking to help your company strike out against the competition.

This position wears many marketing hats, with the ability to organize, develop and regularly increase the efficiency of many tasks. Press release creation, audience spokesperson, risk management, and internal communications are just a few of the common responsibilities a Media Relations Director has. You'll also be coordinating with many of the managers and directors from other teams within the company to have a constant flow of updated knowledge on the company's projects and achievements.

Most Media Relations Directors hold a bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, or business. Having experience in journalism or audience analysis is beneficial when applying for this position, as companies are looking for talented market researchers. This is generally a full-time position with a high possibility of early mornings or long nights. When it comes to annual salary, a Media Relations Director can make anywhere between $48,000 to $148,000 a year.

What general advice would you give to a media relations director?

Jamie Shaw

Dominican University

Network. Network. Network. Get to know your colleagues at your new company once you get there. There are so many ways to do this, including just asking to set up 15-minute information interviews. Besides making relationships with others, which will help make work easier and more fun, understanding why and how a different department operates helps understand the whole organization. This will ultimately make you a better employee.

ScoreMedia Relations DirectorUS Average

Salary

8.0

Avg. Salary $115,268

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.7

Growth rate 8%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.42%

Asian 5.13%

Black or African American 6.01%

Hispanic or Latino 9.16%

Unknown 4.67%

White 74.62%

Gender

female 38.82%

male 61.18%

Age - 41

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 - 41

Stress level

8.7

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.4

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.8

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a media relations director

Explore media relations director education requirements

Most common media relations director degrees

Bachelor's

83.7 %

Master's

10.3 %

Associate

3.9 %

Start to develop specific media relations director skills

Skills	Percentages
Web Content	12.77%
Spokesperson	7.76%
Crisis Communications	4.48%
Press Conferences	4.28%
Communications Strategies	3.76%

Complete relevant media relations director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New media relations 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 a media relations director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real media relations director resumes.

Research media relations director duties and responsibilities

Hire, train and manage play-by-play broadcasters guaranteeing a professional and informative listening experience.
Initiate and supervise development of new media technologies including iPhone and iPad apps, Facebook, YouTube and mobile website.
Create daily posts on Facebook and engage with people there.
Develop and implement online SEM efforts optimizing conversion rate for e-commerce.

Get media relations director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a media relations director. The most common roles before becoming a media relations director include reporter, communications director team lead and account executive.

Prepare your media relations director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your media relations 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 a media relations 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 media relations director resume templates

Build a professional media relations 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 media relations director resume.