How To Become A Senior Publicist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a senior publicist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average senior publicist salary is $77,515. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an communication major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become a senior publicist. Senior publicists with a Accreditation in Public Relations (PR) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 6,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreSenior PublicistUS Average

Salary

6.1

Avg. Salary $77,515

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 5.05%

Black or African American 5.69%

Hispanic or Latino 8.88%

Unknown 4.65%

White 75.30%

Gender

female 76.87%

male 23.13%

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 senior publicist

Explore senior publicist education requirements

Most common senior publicist degrees

Bachelor's

86.3 %

Master's

5.4 %

Associate

5.0 %

Start to develop specific senior publicist skills

Skills	Percentages
Press Releases	19.15%
Publicity Campaigns	9.94%
Press Materials	8.17%
Fiction	7.70%
Booking	6.40%

Complete relevant senior publicist training and internships

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

Research senior publicist duties and responsibilities

Manage and oversee the distribution of show web clips, including breaking news and investigations.
Manage improvements to company website including new content management system and SEO to increase functionality and improve organic search rankings.
Develop promotional strategies for bestselling fiction, and non-fiction hardcover and trade paperback publishing.
Create original press release, brand biographies, and story content copy.

Get senior publicist experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a senior publicist. The most common roles before becoming a senior publicist include publicist, account executive team lead and public relations manager.

Prepare your senior publicist resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable senior publicist resume templates

Build a professional senior publicist 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 senior publicist resume.