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.
Media Relations Director Overview
Media Relations Director Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a media relations director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.69 an hour? That's $88,800 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 6,300 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Media Relations Director Do
There are certain skills that many media relations directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, leadership skills and organizational skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a media relations director, we found that a lot of resumes listed 13.4% of media relations directors included web content, while 8.5% of resumes included press releases, and 8.1% of resumes included spokesperson. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the media relations director job title. But what industry to start with? Most media relations directors actually find jobs in the education and non profits industries.
How To Become a Media Relations Director
If you're interested in becoming a media relations director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 79.9% of media relations directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.9% of media relations directors have master's degrees. Even though most media relations directors have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a media relations director. When we researched the most common majors for a media relations director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on media relations director resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a media relations director. In fact, many media relations director jobs require experience in a role such as reporter. Meanwhile, many media relations directors also have previous career experience in roles such as communications director or account executive.
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Media Relations Director Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a media relations director can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as communications director, progress to a title such as executive director and then eventually end up with the title executive director.
Media Relations Director Jobs You Might Like
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Average Salary for a Media Relations Director
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
ACLU of Missouri Director of Media & Public Relations Director of Media & Public Relations | ACLU of Missouri ACLU of Missouri | 01/22/2021 01/22/2021 | $93,00001/22/2021 $93,000 |
American Friends Service Committee Media Relations Director Media Relations Director | American Friends Service Committee American Friends Service Committee | 10/14/2020 10/14/2020 | $62,26510/14/2020 $62,265 |
University of California Director, Media Relations (Pitching) Director, Media Relations (Pitching) | University of California University of California | 07/13/2020 07/13/2020 | $68,30407/13/2020 $68,304 |
Miami Dade College Director, Media Relations Director, Media Relations | Miami Dade College Miami Dade College | 04/24/2020 04/24/2020 | $72,58804/24/2020 $72,588 |
Columbia University Director of Science Communication and Media Relations Director of Science Communication and Media Relations | Columbia University Columbia University | 04/01/2020 04/01/2020 | $120,00004/01/2020 $120,000 |
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Top Colleges for Media Relations Directors
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
3. San Diego State University
San Diego, CA • Private
4. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
5. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
6. New York University
New York, NY • Private
7. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
8. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
9. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Private
10. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
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Top Skills For a Media Relations Director
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.4% of media relations directors listed web content on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and leadership skills are important as well.
- Web Content, 13.4%
- Press Releases, 8.5%
- Spokesperson, 8.1%
- Internal Communications, 5.6%
- Crisis Communications, 4.7%
- Other Skills, 59.7% See All Media Relations Director Skills
Best States For a Media Relations Director
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a media relations director. The best states for people in this position are New York, New Jersey, Washington, and Pennsylvania. Media relations directors make the most in New York with an average salary of $118,361. Whereas in New Jersey and Washington, they would average $101,580 and $97,081, respectively. While media relations directors would only make an average of $97,005 in Pennsylvania, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$118,361
Avg. Salary
2. District of Columbia
$101,696
Avg. Salary
3. Illinois
$96,613
Avg. Salary
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