Media Jobs - Traditional vs Contemporary

At one point, media jobs meant working for a newspaper or magazine – but technology has changed the way that people consume media, and so the choice of jobs within the industry has blossomed. Here is the breakdown of the types of jobs currently available – both traditional and contemporary.

Planning - Offline

Traditionally, media planners worked with newspapers, magazines and TV channels to select and place advertising for clients. The key skills of a traditional planner involves working with the client to consider who the target audience is, and how best to expose the brand message to them. This may involve working out what times and channels to air TV adverts on, or deciding which newspapers would work best – this could be national broadsheets or local papers - so it’s important for an offline planner to be aware of the different channels available. An offline media planner needs to be able to see which channels will work best together - so you’ll need to be an all-rounder in terms of ad distribution!

Planning - Online

An online media planner works in a very similar way to a planner working on offline channels - but they will also work with a range of websites and other technology. As watching TV online and reading news stories on mobile technology becomes more prevalent, the options available to an online media planner have expanded. It’s important that an online media planner can use a range of ways to explore how the target audience use the internet - from social media to websites, blogs to search - as each of these can be used in different ways to target the brand’s desired audience.

Remember - online and offline channels are likely to intersect more and more as time goes on - so the best planners will be able to use both online and offline media channels as necessary!

Buying - Offline

Media buyers are the individuals who organise the buying of advertising time for their client. This means that once they know what the best advertising methods are, the buyer will organise the buying of those advertising slots. An offline buyer will need to organise pricing, space and timing of advertising slots, working with traditional media such as newspapers and magazines. Because of this, it’s important for a media buyer to maintain good relationships with both contacts and clients.

Buying - Online

Online buyers provide a similar role for media campaigns which are based on the internet. An online media buyer may have to work with PPC advertising, banner adverts on websites or a range of other online mediums. The key skills of an online media buyer include being able to think strategically in order not to spend too much budget at one time, and being able to communicate effectively with other members of the team - a good online buyer will have an instinctive understanding of the success of their campaigns.