Media assistant job description templates for agencies, in-house teams, PR, production, and school media centers, with pay data and FLSA notes. Free DOCX.
Media Assistant Job Description Templates for Small Teams
6 free templates for a title that covers four different jobs: agency media buying, in-house marketing, press relations, video production, school media centers, and part-time support. Download as DOCX.
The first media assistant posting I ever reviewed for a client pulled 60 applications in four days. Roughly half were video editors, a quarter were press officers, and a handful were school library aides. The job was reconciling insertion orders at a small ad agency. Nobody had misread the posting. The posting simply never said which media it meant.
That is the defining problem with this title. Media assistant describes at least four unrelated jobs that share a word, and generic templates make it worse by listing duties broad enough to cover all of them. The result is volume without fit, which is the most expensive kind of hiring failure for a team that does not have a recruiter.
At FirstHR we write hiring templates for small teams doing this themselves. The six below split the title into the versions that actually get hired: agency media buying support, in-house marketing, media relations, video production, a school media center, and a part-time entry-level seat. Each carries the classification and pay notes the generic versions skip.
TL;DR
Media assistant covers four distinct jobs: agency media buying support, press and communications support, broadcast production support, and school media center work. All of them are non-exempt hourly roles under the FLSA. There is no BLS occupation by this title, so benchmark to nearby classifications. Six templates below, downloadable as DOCX.
One Title, Four Different Jobs
Before writing anything else, decide which meaning of media your job uses, because the four versions share almost no skills. A media buying assistant lives in spreadsheets and vendor invoices. A media relations assistant lives in press lists and draft copy. They are not interchangeable hires.
The confusion is not the candidate's fault. Job boards index the phrase, not the context, so every version of the role surfaces in the same search. The only fix available to you is a specific opening sentence in the position summary.
Media buying and planning
Agency or in-house marketing
The most common meaning. The assistant supports planners and buyers with flowcharts, insertion orders, trafficking, reporting, and invoice reconciliation. The job is accuracy under a billing cycle, and the skill that matters most is spreadsheet discipline.
Media relations and press
PR and communications
Here media means journalists. The assistant maintains press lists, monitors coverage, drafts releases for approval, and coordinates interviews. Writing quality and discretion with unannounced information carry the role.
Broadcast and video production
Studio, station, or production house
Media means footage and gear. The assistant ingests and archives material, preps equipment, supports crew on set, and tracks rights and releases. Physical requirements and irregular hours belong in this posting.
School library media center
K-12 and private schools
Media means the collection and the devices. The assistant runs circulation, supports cataloging, manages device checkout, and supervises students. Background checks and mandated reporting apply here and nowhere else on this list.
Say Which Media in the First Sentence
Open the position summary with the version you mean: to support our paid media planning and buying team, or to support press outreach and coverage reporting, or to manage footage, gear, and the archive, or to run circulation and device checkout in our media center. One sentence removes most of the wrong applicants before they reach the responsibilities list. Everything below that sentence should be consistent with it.
What a Media Assistant Does
A media assistant executes and records the work someone else planned. Across all four versions the pattern is the same: maintain the system of record, hit a recurring deadline, chase the missing piece, and flag anything that looks wrong rather than working around it.
That description sounds modest until the person leaves. The assistant is usually the only one who knows which vendor never sent the proof, which invoice does not match delivery, and where the master file lives. Write those responsibilities down explicitly, because unwritten institutional knowledge is what makes the role hard to backfill.
Patience with students plus accurate record keeping
Part-time or entry-level
Data entry, asset uploads, standing weekly report, vendor follow-up
Consistency on a fixed schedule
Notice what is absent from every row: strategy, negotiation, and final approval. Those belong to the planner, the buyer, or the manager. That boundary is what keeps the role non-exempt, and it is also what makes the job a genuine entry point rather than a trap. Our guide to writing a job description covers the general structure in more depth.
What Belongs in the Posting
A media assistant posting does four jobs at once: it disambiguates the title, it describes the actual week, it protects you legally, and it closes the candidate. Most templates only do the third, and badly. Here is the full inventory.
The parts that stop the wrong applicants
Which meaning of media this job uses, in the first sentence
The channels or platforms in scope, named
Who the assistant supports and how many accounts
On-site, hybrid, or remote, stated once and clearly
The parts that describe the actual day
The recurring tasks and their cadence
The systems and spreadsheets the work lives in
The deadline rhythm: weekly report, monthly billing, shoot days
Physical or scheduling requirements where they exist
The parts that protect you
Non-exempt status stated on the posting
Hourly rate rather than an annual figure
Essential functions written plainly
Equal opportunity statement and any clearance requirement
The parts that win the hire
Pay, or a good-faith range where required
What the assistant learns and who teaches it
The path from assistant to coordinator or planner
A named person and a real deadline to apply
The most common omission is cadence. Candidates for a support role want to know the rhythm: what is due weekly, what is due monthly, and which weeks get busy. A posting that lists duties without cadence reads as a job nobody has scoped, and careful applicants avoid it.
6 Media Assistant Job Description Templates to Download
Download all six as one file or copy them individually. Each follows the same structure: company overview, position summary, key responsibilities, required qualifications, a classification and compliance note, an equal opportunity statement, and how to apply. The bracketed fields are the only parts you need to change.
Download All 6 Media Assistant Job Description Templates
Agency, in-house, media relations, production, school media center, and part-time. All in one download.
Agency Media Assistant
Planning and buying support
For an advertising or media agency: flowcharts, insertion orders, trafficking, reporting, and invoice reconciliation across multiple accounts.
In-House Media Assistant
One brand, one budget
For a company running its own paid media: the calendar, the asset library, the vendor paperwork, and the weekly numbers.
Media Relations Assistant
Press and communications
For PR and comms teams: press lists, coverage monitoring, draft releases, interview logistics, and the approval path for statements.
Production Media Assistant
Footage, gear, and archive
For broadcast, streaming, and video production: ingest, labeling, backups, equipment prep, edit support, and rights tracking.
Library Media Assistant
School media center
For a school: circulation, shelving, cataloging support, device checkout, student supervision, and pre-start clearance requirements.
Part-Time / Entry-Level
Fixed weekly hours
For recurring help without a full-time seat, with the part-time overtime rule and the contractor warning stated plainly.
Template 1: Media Assistant, Advertising or Media Agency
The planning and buying support role: flowcharts, insertion orders, trafficking, reporting, and reconciliation across multiple accounts. If you are staffing the layer above this one, see the media director templates.
Media Assistant Job Description (Advertising or Media Agency)
MEDIA ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION (ADVERTISING / MEDIA AGENCY)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Media Planner / Media Supervisor / Media Director]
Employment type: Full-time
FLSA status: Non-exempt (hourly, overtime-eligible; see classification note)
Compensation: $_ per hour
ABOUT [COMPANY NAME]
[Company Name] is a [full-service / media / performance] agency in [City, State]
serving [client types]. We are hiring a Media Assistant to support the planning
and buying team across [number] active accounts.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Media Assistant supports media planners and buyers by building and
maintaining media plans and flowcharts, issuing and tracking insertion orders,
pulling campaign performance data, reconciling invoices against what actually
ran, and keeping the paperwork behind every buy accurate and current.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Maintain media plans, flowcharts, and buy authorizations in [system]
•Draft and issue insertion orders, then confirm receipt and start dates
•Traffic creative assets and specs to vendors and publishers by deadline
•Pull weekly performance data from [platforms] and build recurring reports
•Reconcile vendor invoices against delivered impressions and flag discrepancies
•Track budgets by client, channel, and flight, and update actuals
•Request and organize proposals, rate cards, and avails from media partners
•Maintain the vendor contact list and the competitive spend files
•Support the team in [QBR / campaign wrap] deck preparation
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Associate / bachelor's] degree in marketing, advertising, communications, or
equivalent practical experience
•Strong spreadsheet skills: pivot tables, lookups, and clean data hygiene
•Comfort with numbers, deadlines, and detail under a monthly billing cycle
•Written communication clear enough to email a vendor without supervision
•[0 to 2] years of agency, marketing, or analytical experience
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE (read before posting)
Treat this role as non-exempt unless you can genuinely defend otherwise. The
administrative exemption requires a primary duty of office work directly related
to management or general business operations that includes the exercise of
discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, plus a salary of
at least $684 per week. A media assistant who executes plans built by someone
else, follows an approved budget, and reports results is not exercising that
judgment, whatever the salary. Track hours, pay overtime past 40 in a workweek,
and revisit the classification only when the duties actually change. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary], [overtime policy]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 2: Media Assistant, In-House Marketing Team
For a company running its own paid media rather than outsourcing it. One brand, one budget, and a calendar that everything else depends on. Pair it with the marketing coordinator templates if you are building the layer above.
Media Assistant Job Description (In-House Marketing Team)
MEDIA ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION (IN-HOUSE MARKETING TEAM)
For PR and communications teams: press lists, coverage monitoring, draft releases, interview logistics, and a clear approval path for every external statement.
Media Relations Assistant Job Description (PR and Communications)
MEDIA RELATIONS ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION (PR / COMMUNICATIONS)
Organization: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Communications Manager / Director of Communications]
[Organization Name] is a [company / nonprofit / association] in [City, State].
We are hiring a Media Relations Assistant to support press outreach, monitor
coverage, and keep our journalist and outlet records accurate.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Media Relations Assistant supports the communications team with press list
management, media monitoring, coverage reporting, and the logistics behind
interviews, statements, and announcements.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Maintain press lists and journalist records by outlet, beat, and deadline
•Monitor coverage daily and circulate a clip summary to [distribution list]
•Draft first versions of press releases, media advisories, and pitch emails for
review by [manager]
•Coordinate interview scheduling, briefing documents, and follow-up
•Track placements, reach, and sentiment in the monthly coverage report
•Maintain the spokesperson bio, boilerplate, and photo library
•Support event and announcement logistics: [press kits, credentials, RSVPs]
•Route every external statement through the approval path before it goes out
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[Bachelor's degree in communications, journalism, English, or equivalent]
•Strong writing and editing in American English, including AP style basics
•Discretion with embargoed and pre-announcement information
•Comfort working to a same-day deadline
•[0 to 2] years of communications, newsroom, or agency experience
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Assistant-level communications roles are non-exempt. The creative professional
exemption applies to work requiring invention, imagination, originality, or
talent in a recognized artistic field, and drafting from a template for someone
else's approval does not clear that bar. Neither does the administrative
exemption, because the assistant does not set the communications strategy. Pay
hourly, track hours, and pay overtime past 40 in a workweek. Announcement weeks
and crisis response generate overtime, so plan for it in the budget. This is
general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Organization Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume and two writing samples.
Template 4: Broadcast and Video Production Media Assistant
For studios, stations, and production houses: ingest, archive discipline, equipment prep, edit support, and rights tracking. For crew-side hiring, the production assistant templates cover the on-set version of this work.
Broadcast and Video Production Media Assistant Job Description
BROADCAST / VIDEO PRODUCTION MEDIA ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Production Manager / Studio Manager / Chief Engineer]
content from our facility in [City, State]. We are hiring a Media Assistant to
handle the footage, the gear, and the file management that keeps production
moving.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Media Assistant ingests, labels, backs up, and archives all recorded
material, prepares equipment for shoots, supports the crew on set and in the
edit suite, and maintains the studio's media library and technical records.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Ingest footage and audio, apply the naming convention, and verify backups
•Maintain the archive and the media library so any asset can be found by title,
date, project, and rights status
•Prepare, test, and check out equipment for each shoot; log damage immediately
•Support setup and strike on location and in studio: [lighting, audio, camera]
•Assist editors with rough assembly, transcoding, and delivery specs
•Track usage rights, releases, and licensed music for every project
•Keep the maintenance log and flag failing gear before it fails on a shoot
•Support [live event / broadcast] coverage on the schedule assigned
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / associate degree / bachelor's: set your bar]
•Working knowledge of [NLE software], file formats, codecs, and storage
•Physical requirements: able to lift [__] pounds and stand for [__] hours
•Availability for [evenings / weekends / travel] as production requires
•Careful, methodical file discipline; the archive is only as good as the labels
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Production assistant work is non-exempt. The creative professional exemption
covers work depending primarily on invention, imagination, originality, or
talent, and ingest, logging, and equipment prep are technical and manual rather
than creative in that sense. Production schedules also generate genuine overtime,
so record every hour including call time, travel between locations where it
counts as hours worked, and time spent waiting on set. Unpaid production credits
are a misclassification risk: if the person is doing the work of an employee, pay
them as one. This is general information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [overtime policy], [per-project rates]
To apply, email __ with your resume and a reel or
project list.
Template 5: Library Media Assistant, School Media Center
For a school media center: circulation, cataloging support, device checkout, student supervision, and the clearance requirements that have to be finished before the first day.
Library Media Assistant Job Description (School Media Center)
LIBRARY MEDIA ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION (SCHOOL MEDIA CENTER)
School: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Librarian / Media Specialist / Head of School]
Employment type: [10-month] school-year position, full-time or part-time
[School Name] is an independent school in [City, State] serving grades [range].
Our media center supports [number] students with a print collection, digital
resources, and the devices students use every day. We are hiring a Library Media
Assistant to keep it running.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Library Media Assistant supports the media specialist with circulation,
shelving, cataloging support, device checkout, and supervision of students in the
media center during scheduled periods.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Run circulation: check in, check out, holds, renewals, and overdue notices
•Shelve, shift, and maintain the collection in correct order
•Support cataloging and processing of new materials in [system]
•Manage student device checkout, charging carts, and basic troubleshooting
•Supervise students in the media center during [scheduled periods]
•Help students and teachers locate materials and use digital resources
•Prepare displays, reading lists, and materials for [classroom units]
•Maintain circulation records and pull usage reports for [the specialist]
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / associate degree: set your bar]
•Comfort with a library system, a spreadsheet, and student devices
•Patience and clear communication with students in grades [range]
•Must clear a criminal background check and fingerprinting as required by state
law and our policy, before the first day
•[Prior school or library experience preferred]
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
A library media assistant is non-exempt: hourly and entitled to overtime past 40
hours in a workweek. The teaching professional exemption applies to employees
whose primary duty is teaching in an educational establishment, and a media
assistant supporting circulation and supervision is not that, regardless of the
school calendar. School employees are also mandated reporters of suspected child
abuse and neglect in every state, and most states require criminal history and
fingerprint-based background checks for school staff with student contact.
Complete clearance before the first day in the building, not after. Confirm the
specifics with your state education agency. This is general information, not
legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[School Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [school-year calendar], [benefits summary]
To apply, email __ with your resume.
Template 6: Part-Time or Entry-Level Media Assistant
For recurring help without a full-time seat, with the part-time overtime rule and the contractor warning stated plainly. If the work is content rather than campaign operations, use the social media assistant templates instead.
Part-Time or Entry-Level Media Assistant Job Description
PART-TIME / ENTRY-LEVEL MEDIA ASSISTANT JOB DESCRIPTION (HOURLY)
Company: __ ([City, State])
Reports to: [Marketing Manager / Media Planner / Owner]
[Company Name] needs consistent help with the routine side of our media work
without adding a full-time seat. This is a paid, part-time, entry-level position
suitable for someone building a career in marketing, advertising, or
communications.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Media Assistant handles the recurring tasks that keep campaigns organized:
data entry into the media plan, asset uploads, weekly reporting, calendar
maintenance, and vendor follow-up, on a fixed weekly schedule.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
•Work a fixed schedule of [days and hours] each week
•Update the media plan and campaign tracker with current numbers
•Upload assets, check specs, and confirm placements went live
•Build the standing weekly report from [sources] and send it by [day]
•Chase vendor confirmations, proofs, and missing invoices
•Maintain contact lists, files, and folder structure
•Flag anything that looks wrong rather than working around it
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
•[High school diploma / current enrollment / degree: set your bar]
•Reliable availability during the scheduled hours
•Spreadsheet basics and accurate data entry
•Written English clear enough for external emails
•No prior agency experience required; we will train on our tools
CLASSIFICATION AND COMPLIANCE NOTE
Part-time does not mean exempt, and it does not mean contractor. A part-time
media assistant is a non-exempt employee: paid at least the applicable minimum
wage, with hours tracked and overtime owed past 40 in a workweek even on a
part-time schedule. If you set the hours, the location, the tools, and the
method, you have an employee and not an independent contractor. If you are
considering an unpaid internship instead, apply the Department of Labor's primary
beneficiary test honestly: an unpaid intern who is doing the work a paid
assistant would otherwise do is an employee owed wages. This is general
information, not legal advice.
EEO STATEMENT
[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer and provides reasonable
accommodations for the essential functions of this role.
COMPENSATION AND HOW TO APPLY
Compensation: $_ per hour, [scheduled hours], [growth path]
To apply, email __ with your resume and your weekly
availability.
Why a Media Assistant Is Non-Exempt
A media assistant is non-exempt in nearly every structure: hourly, hours recorded, overtime past 40 in a workweek. The role fails the duties half of the administrative exemption because executing an approved plan is not the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance.
The federal rules set two tests, and both must be met. The Department of Labor's overview of the white-collar exemptions states the salary requirement at $684 per week, and the regulation defining the administrative exemption adds the duties requirement on top of it. Clearing the salary floor alone does nothing.
Assistant titles almost never clear the administrative exemption
The administrative exemption asks for a primary duty of office work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or its customers, and that duty must include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance. Both halves have to be true. A media assistant who executes a plan someone else approved, buys against a budget someone else set, and reports the results is doing office work related to business operations, which satisfies the first half and fails the second. Paying a salary does not fix it either, because the salary test is a floor and not a substitute for the duties test. The safe and usually correct call is non-exempt: hourly, hours recorded, overtime past 40 in a workweek. Revisit only when the person genuinely starts making the calls. This is general information, not legal advice.
Campaign cycles create real overtime
Media work is not evenly distributed across the year. Launch weeks, quarter-end, holiday retail flights, awards season, and shoot days all compress work into a few days, and the assistant is usually the person absorbing the compression. If the role is non-exempt, and it almost always is, those hours are owed at one and one-half times the regular rate past 40 in a workweek. Two practical consequences. First, budget for the overtime instead of being surprised by it: model the peak weeks when you set the rate. Second, put a real timekeeping system in place before the first peak, because reconstructing hours after the fact is how small employers end up owing back wages plus liquidated damages. Salaried non-exempt is a valid arrangement if you prefer a predictable base, but it does not remove the overtime obligation. This is general information, not legal advice.
Unpaid media internships are the classic trap
Agencies, studios, and communications teams have a long habit of staffing assistant work with unpaid interns, and it is one of the most reliable ways for a small employer to create a wage claim. The Department of Labor applies a primary beneficiary test with seven non-determinative factors, weighing things like whether the training resembles an educational environment, whether the internship is tied to formal coursework or credit, and whether the intern displaces paid staff. The practical read is simple: if the intern is doing the recurring production work a paid assistant would otherwise do, on your schedule, for your benefit, that person is an employee owed minimum wage and overtime. Paid internships avoid the whole analysis. If you want a genuine learning position, build one and document it. This is general information, not legal advice.
Two settings carry extra requirements
Most media assistant roles have no licensing or clearance layer at all, which is part of why they are accessible entry points. Two exceptions matter. A school media center assistant works with students, so criminal history and fingerprint-based background checks apply in most states, mandated-reporter duties apply in every state, and clearance has to be complete before the first day in the building rather than during the first week. A production media assistant handles footage, releases, and licensed material, so rights tracking is part of the job description and not an afterthought: who signed a release, what music is licensed for what use, and when a license expires. Write both into the posting so candidates know what they are agreeing to. Confirm school requirements with your state education agency. This is general information, not legal advice.
If you are weighing a specific role and want the tests worked through in order, our breakdown of exempt versus non-exempt classification walks through both. Everyone on the non-exempt side needs hours tracked and overtime paid past forty in a week, including part-time staff.
Unpaid Interns Doing Assistant Work Are Employees
Agencies, studios, and communications teams routinely staff this work with unpaid interns, and it is the fastest route to a wage claim in the industry. The Department of Labor's primary beneficiary test weighs seven non-determinative factors, and displacement of paid staff sits near the center of it. If the intern is doing the recurring work a paid assistant would otherwise do, that person is an employee owed minimum wage and overtime. Pay the internship and the question disappears.
What to Pay a Media Assistant
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation titled media assistant, so no official median exists for the title itself. Benchmark against the nearest classifications instead, and anchor to the lower percentiles rather than the median, because these occupational medians cover full careers and an assistant is at the start of one.
Nearest BLS Classifications, National Medians
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), median annual wages were $78,760 for market research analysts and marketing specialists, $73,620 for media and communication workers not classified elsewhere, $58,100 for audio and video technicians, $47,540 for secretaries and administrative assistants, and $36,910 for library assistants in clerical roles. Entry-level pay tracks the 10th percentile far more closely: $43,390, $39,120, $37,990, $33,280, and $27,730 respectively (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS national estimates).
Nearest classification
10th percentile
Median
Which media assistant it fits
Market research analysts and marketing specialists
$43,390
$78,760
Agency and in-house media planning support
Media and communication workers, all other
$39,120
$73,620
Mixed media roles that fit no single category
Public relations specialists
$44,110
$74,750
Media relations and press support
Audio and video technicians
$37,990
$58,100
Broadcast and video production support
Secretaries and administrative assistants
$33,280
$47,540
Coordination-heavy in-house assistant roles
Library technicians
$29,300
$44,580
School media center, technical duties
Library assistants, clerical
$27,730
$36,910
School media center, circulation duties
Convert whichever row fits into an hourly rate before you post it, because the role is hourly. A useful sanity check: the 10th percentile figures above correspond to roughly $13 to $21 per hour at 2,080 hours, and a competitive entry offer in a metro market usually sits above that band. Publish a good-faith range wherever pay transparency laws apply.
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Pay is also where the career ladder becomes a recruiting argument. Assistants at this level are choosing between employers on the basis of what they will learn and where the job leads, and a small team can win on both without matching a larger budget.
Media Assistant
Executes and records
Maintains plans, issues orders, pulls data, reconciles invoices. Non-exempt. Judged on accuracy and follow-through rather than strategy.
Media Coordinator
Owns a process
Runs the reporting cycle and the vendor relationships end to end. Still usually non-exempt. The first role where someone else depends on their judgment.
Media Planner or Buyer
Owns the recommendation
Builds the plan, negotiates the buy, defends the mix to the client or the executive team. This is where exempt status starts to become genuinely arguable.
Media Supervisor or Director
Owns the outcome
Sets strategy across accounts or channels, manages the team, controls the budget. Exempt in most structures under the executive or administrative test.
Skills Worth Screening For
Screen for accuracy and follow-through, not for credentials. The failure mode in this role is never a missing degree, it is a number typed wrong into a plan, a proof that never got chased, or a file saved somewhere nobody else can find.
The most predictive exercise takes 30 minutes to build and 30 minutes to grade. Send a small messy dataset and ask the candidate to produce the weekly report you actually send, or hand over a vendor spreadsheet with three deliberate errors in it and ask what looks wrong. Both tell you more than any interview answer about attention to detail.
What to screen for
How to test it
What a weak signal looks like
Spreadsheet fluency
Ask for a pivot table and a lookup on a real file
Manual retyping instead of formulas
Attention to detail
Plant three errors in a sample buy sheet
Finds none, or reports them without specifics
Written communication
Ask for a short vendor email chasing a missing proof
Vague, no deadline, no specific ask
Follow-through
Ask how they tracked open items in their last role
No system described beyond memory
Discretion (PR and agency)
Ask what they would do with an unannounced campaign detail
Treats it as a normal conversation topic
Reliability (production and school)
Confirm availability against your real schedule
Vague on the hours the job actually requires
One screening question worth adding everywhere: ask the candidate to describe a time they found a mistake in someone else's work and what they did about it. The answer separates people who flag problems from people who quietly work around them, and in a support role that difference is the entire job.
Hiring a Media Assistant Without an HR Department
Small-team hiring for this role fails in three predictable places: the posting is ambiguous, the duties are written from the hiring manager's head instead of the candidate's, and the first hourly hire arrives with timekeeping obligations nobody planned for. Each has a fix.
The posting says media and the applicants have no idea which job you mean
This is the single most expensive mistake on this page. A posting headed Media Assistant with generic duties underneath will pull press-list people into a media buying role and video editors into a communications job, and you will spend two weeks screening candidates who were never a match. The fix costs one sentence: name the meaning in the opening line of the summary. We are hiring a media assistant to support our paid media planning and buying team. Or to support press outreach and coverage reporting. Or to manage footage, gear, and the archive. Everything else in the posting flows from that sentence, and the applicant pool narrows to people who actually want the job you have.
You are hiring an assistant while doing the assistant’s job yourself
At a small agency or a small marketing team, the person writing this job description is the same person currently reconciling the invoices at ten at night. That is the reason the role exists, and it is also the reason the posting tends to be vague: you know the work so well that you forget the candidate cannot see it. Write the recurring tasks with their cadence attached. Weekly report every Monday. Insertion orders within a day of approval. Monthly reconciliation by the fifth. A candidate can picture that week and self-select accurately, and you get a shorter shortlist of better fits instead of a long list of maybes.
Hourly hires bring timekeeping, and there is nowhere to put the paperwork
An assistant is almost always your first non-exempt hire on a marketing team, and non-exempt brings obligations a salaried team never dealt with: recorded hours every week, overtime past 40, a rate stated in writing, and pay-rate notices where the state requires them. On top of that comes the ordinary new-hire pile of offer letter, handbook acknowledgment, tax and eligibility forms, equipment assignment, and platform access. FirstHR was built for teams handling that without an HR department. The onboarding wizard runs the same sequence for every hire, e-signature covers the offer and the acknowledgments, document management stores everything against the employee profile, and training modules deliver tool and brand orientation before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. Note that FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider.
Once the offer is signed, the work shifts to a repeatable onboarding checklist. For a media assistant that means tool and platform access on day one, because the job cannot start without it, plus the naming conventions and file structure that the rest of the team already assumes. More templates for this stage sit in our hiring templates library.
Key Takeaways
Media assistant covers four unrelated jobs, so name which one you mean in the first sentence of the position summary or you will screen the wrong applicants for weeks.
The role is non-exempt in nearly every structure: assistant duties satisfy the business-operations half of the administrative exemption and fail the discretion and independent judgment half.
Paying a salary does not create exempt status, because the $684 per week salary level is a floor rather than a substitute for the duties test.
No BLS occupation carries this title, so benchmark against market research analysts, media and communication workers, audio and video technicians, administrative assistants, or library assistants depending on the setting.
Anchor entry-level pay to the 10th percentile of the nearest classification rather than the median, then convert to an hourly rate and publish a good-faith range where required.
Unpaid interns doing the recurring work a paid assistant would otherwise do are employees owed minimum wage and overtime under the primary beneficiary test.
A media assistant is often a marketing team's first hourly hire, and hourly brings paperwork a salaried team never had. FirstHR runs the same onboarding sequence every time, with e-signature for the offer and the acknowledgments, document storage against each employee profile, and training modules that cover tools and brand standards before day one. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a media assistant do?
It depends on which industry is using the title, and there are four common answers. At an advertising or media agency, a media assistant supports planners and buyers: maintaining flowcharts, issuing insertion orders, trafficking creative, pulling performance data, and reconciling vendor invoices against what actually ran. On an in-house marketing team, the same person keeps the campaign calendar, the asset library, the budget tracker, and the weekly report. In public relations, a media assistant maintains press lists, monitors coverage, drafts releases for approval, and coordinates interviews. In broadcast or video production, the job is ingest, labeling, backups, equipment prep, and archive management. In a school media center it is circulation, cataloging support, device checkout, and student supervision. Name the version you mean in the first line of the posting, because the four attract completely different candidates.
Is a media assistant exempt or non-exempt under the FLSA?
Non-exempt in nearly every case, which means hourly pay, recorded hours, and overtime at one and one-half times the regular rate past 40 hours in a workweek. The administrative exemption requires a primary duty of office work directly related to management or general business operations that includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment on matters of significance, plus a salary of at least $684 per week. A media assistant typically satisfies the first part and not the second: executing an approved plan, buying against a set budget, and reporting results is not the exercise of independent judgment on matters of significance. Paying a salary does not create exempt status on its own, because the salary level is a floor rather than a substitute for the duties test. Classify on the actual duties, revisit when they change, and treat part-time staff the same way. This is general information, not legal advice.
How much does a media assistant make?
There is no Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation titled media assistant, so there is no single official figure and you should be skeptical of anyone who quotes one. Benchmark against the nearest classifications instead. In the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), the national median annual wage was $78,760 for market research analysts and marketing specialists, $73,620 for media and communication workers not classified elsewhere, $58,100 for audio and video technicians, $47,540 for secretaries and administrative assistants, and $36,910 for library assistants in clerical roles. Those medians cover full careers, not entry-level seats, so an assistant sits near the bottom of the range. The 10th percentile figures are the more useful anchor: $43,390, $39,120, $37,990, $33,280, and $27,730 respectively. Convert to an hourly rate, check your local market and any state or city pay transparency rule, then publish the range.
What is the difference between a media assistant and a media coordinator?
The difference is ownership. An assistant executes and records: maintaining the plan, issuing the orders, pulling the numbers, and flagging problems for someone else to resolve. A coordinator owns a process end to end, which usually means running the reporting cycle, managing vendor relationships directly, and making routine calls without checking first. In practice the coordinator title also carries a higher rate and often supervises or trains the assistant. Both are typically non-exempt, so do not treat the promotion as an automatic switch to salaried and overtime-free. The next steps up are planner or buyer, where the person owns the recommendation itself, and supervisor or director, where exempt status becomes genuinely arguable under the executive or administrative test. Write the ladder into the posting: candidates at this level care about where the job leads.
Do I need a degree requirement in a media assistant job description?
Usually not, and requiring one narrows your pool for very little gain. The work rewards spreadsheet fluency, deadline discipline, and careful attention to detail, none of which a degree reliably signals. A better filter is a short practical exercise: send a small dataset and ask the candidate to build the weekly report you actually send, or send a messy vendor spreadsheet and ask what looks wrong in it. That takes 30 minutes to evaluate and predicts performance far better than a credential. Where a degree does earn its place is in media relations, because writing quality and AP style familiarity matter and a communications or journalism program teaches both. Even there, two strong writing samples tell you more than the diploma. Mark any degree line as preferred rather than required unless you would genuinely reject a strong candidate without one.
Can I hire a media assistant as an unpaid intern?
Almost certainly not, and this is the most common wage claim in agency and production work. The Department of Labor applies a primary beneficiary test with seven non-determinative factors, looking at whether the training resembles an educational environment, whether the position is tied to formal coursework or academic credit, whether it accommodates the academic calendar, and whether the intern displaces paid employees. If the person is doing the recurring production work a paid assistant would otherwise do, on your schedule and for your benefit, that person is an employee entitled to minimum wage and overtime regardless of what the arrangement is called. Paid internships avoid the analysis entirely and widen your candidate pool to people who cannot afford to work for free. If you want a genuine learning position, build one with structured teaching, document it, and keep it separate from the production queue.
What paperwork do I need when hiring a media assistant?
The standard new-hire set plus the extras that come with your first non-exempt hire. Standard: signed offer letter with the hourly rate stated, employment eligibility verification, federal and state tax withholding forms, direct deposit authorization, handbook acknowledgment, and emergency contacts. Non-exempt additions: a timekeeping method in place before the first shift, a written overtime policy, and a wage notice where your state requires one. Role-specific additions: equipment and platform access records for a production or agency assistant, a confidentiality agreement where the person sees unannounced campaigns or embargoed news, and completed background check and fingerprint clearance before the first day for a school media center assistant. FirstHR runs that sequence as a repeatable checklist with e-signature and document storage attached to each employee profile. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
