If your media career was built on mastering a single platform, the job description has changed.
Advertising budgets are scattering. Social feeds are crowded. Brands are pouring money into digital out-of-home, streaming, experiential and live-event campaigns, and they want people who can connect all of those pieces. The job now is figuring out how DOOH drives mobile behavior, how streaming fits into a broader video strategy, and how first-party data shows up in places it never has before.
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That shift is visible in the listings on Mediabistro. Roles that once read as straightforward “paid media manager” or “media planner” positions now routinely ask for cross-channel fluency, programmatic experience, and the ability to tie campaign performance back to business outcomes. The single-channel specialist posting hasn’t disappeared, but it’s no longer the default.
To understand what these shifts mean for the people actually doing the work, we talked to Noah Everist, VP of Sales Development at Brkthru, a digital media solutions company that works across 25+ platforms for mid-market agencies and brands. Brkthru has landed on the Inc. 5000 list for four consecutive years and serves more than 1,000 active brands. Everist has spent two decades in digital advertising, including nearly a decade at Goodway Group, where he oversaw strategy, P&L and a team of 16 for one of the agency’s largest accounts.
His read on where things are heading? The roles in demand look different than they did even a year ago.
Cross-Channel Thinking Is the New Specialty
The biggest hiring shift Everist sees is a move away from channel-specific experts and toward people who can think across the entire media plan.
“It’s less about being ‘the DOOH person’ or ‘the streaming expert’ and more about understanding how those pieces actually work together,” Everist said. “For example, planners who can connect a DOOH placement to mobile behavior or retail outcomes are really valuable right now.”
He also pointed to growing demand for people who can activate first-party data in channels where it hasn’t traditionally lived, like out-of-home and experiential. “That’s creating roles that feel a little more like systems thinkers than classic media planners,” he said.
This tracks with what’s happening across digital marketing management more broadly. The role of a digital marketing manager has expanded from managing a handful of channels to orchestrating an entire ecosystem, and media buyers are feeling the same pressure. The professionals who can speak fluently across paid search, programmatic display, CTV, and social are the ones getting callbacks.
For anyone wondering what “channel-agnostic strategy” actually looks like on the ground, Everist kept it simple: start with the audience and the outcome. Figure out the platform after.
“Platform expertise still matters, but it’s not the main thing anymore,” he said. “The more valuable skill is being able to connect the dots. How does streaming support social? What role does DOOH play in incremental reach?”
AI Is Reorganizing Teams From the Inside
On the AI side, Everist described something that should be encouraging for media professionals worried about automation. Teams are getting restructured, and the new shape actually has more room for strategic thinking.
“AI is taking a lot of the repetitive work off people’s plates, things like versioning creative, managing bids, or pulling basic reports,” he said. “What happens in practice is teams spend less time executing and more time actually thinking.”
The new roles emerging around AI are focused on guiding the tools. People who know how to get the right outputs from AI systems, train those systems on brand voice, and sense-check what they produce are increasingly in demand. It’s a pattern showing up across media and marketing: the creative director role, for instance, has evolved from primarily art-directing campaigns to orchestrating workflows where AI handles production and humans handle judgment.
“The teams aren’t necessarily smaller,” Everist said. “They’re just built differently, with more focus on oversight and orchestration.”
Your Short-Form Skills Travel
For media pros who built their careers on short-form social content, platform turbulence can feel personal. TikTok’s uncertain regulatory status is the latest example, but it applies to any channel that could shift overnight. Everist’s advice: stop identifying with a single platform.
“The skill was never really TikTok,” he said. “It’s understanding how to capture attention in a short-form environment. That translates pretty easily to Reels, Shorts, and whatever comes next.”
That’s a useful reframe for anyone in a social media management role who feels tethered to a single platform’s algorithm. The underlying skill set, audience instinct, content pacing, trend responsiveness, translates across every short-form surface. The platform is just the distribution layer.
He added that the professionals in the strongest position are the ones pairing creative instinct with analytical chops. “Knowing what works is great. Knowing why it works and how to adapt it quickly is what sets people apart.”
Live Events Are Creating Flexible Work
With major cultural tentpoles (the World Cup, the Super Bowl, award shows, major league playoffs) driving precision-targeted campaigns, brands are rethinking how they staff around live moments. Everist said it’s producing a blend of permanent and project-based work.
“Live moments need people who can move quickly, monitor what’s happening, and adjust in real time,” he said. “That often leads to more project-based or flexible support around big events.”
At the same time, brands are investing in core teams that build the strategy and playbooks in advance. The result is a steady foundation with surge capacity layered on top when the moment hits. For freelancers and contract media pros, that’s a real pipeline of work, and it’s one of the reasons influencer marketing and event-driven media roles have grown so quickly. Brands need people who understand both the creative and the logistics of activating around a live moment.
The Biggest Misconception in Media Buying Right Now
When asked for the single biggest misconception advertisers have right now, Everist didn’t hesitate: “Probably that things are going to settle down.”
“The reality is fragmentation across channels, data, and consumer behavior is still accelerating,” he said. “Waiting for things to simplify isn’t really a strategy.”
For media professionals, that fragmentation is the opportunity. The more complex things get, the more valuable the people who can make sense of it become.
“The brands doing this well are the ones staying flexible,” Everist said. “They’re testing more, moving budgets faster, and building plans that can actually adapt.”
Same advice applies to careers. The professionals who will thrive are the ones willing to move across channels, pick up new tools, and get comfortable with the idea that things will keep shifting. The ones who adapt will be the ones who get hired.
Browse open media buying and planning jobs on Mediabistro, or explore roles in marketing and communications. If you’re hiring for media roles, post your job on Mediabistro to reach candidates with the cross-channel experience Everist describes.
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Advice From the Pros