There’s a hiring frenzy for big ad sales roles in traditional media — but that doesn’t mean the industry is thriving

Brian Grazer and David Zaslav talk after arriving at Allen & Company’s Sun Valley conference.

In an industry known for its volatility, advertising veterans say theirs is greater than they’ve seen in years.

Comcast’s free, ad-supported streamer Xumo just hired a new advertising GM and sales head and is looking for a head of sales and marketing. T-Mobile is expanding its ads business under Jean-Paul Colaco. And in the closely watched ads saga, Netflix is looking for a new leader to drive sales of its ad-supported tier, Basic with Ads.

While it might look like there’s a flurry of advertising hiring, industry insiders say the reality is more sobering. By and large, such hires aren’t a sign of growth. The linear TV business is falling faster than many expected, and the streaming side isn’t growing fast enough to make up for it, which is causing panic.

“The industry’s collapsing faster than anyone expected. They’re all out of favor with Wall Street,” said Dave Morgan, executive chairman and founder of Simulmedia, a TV ad-buying platform.

Legacy media companies have sharply cut staff in recent years, including sales, and those jobs aren’t coming back. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said the media industry, which includes television, film, streaming, and news, announced 12,122 job cuts this year through August, down 37% from the 19,117 announced in the year-ago period.

The high-profile reductions also continued this year, with veteran sales execs like Lisa Valentino and David Lawenda exiting Disney and Paramount, respectively.

Each company is challenged in its own way. Warner Bros. Discovery has been slashing staff on an ongoing basis to pay down debt; just lost its biggest advertising prize, the NBA; and wrote down the value of its TV networks by $9 billion. Several industry insiders believe that CEO David Zaslav could be looking for new ad leadership there. Paramount is cutting 15% of staff ahead of its planned tie-up with David Ellison’s Hollywood studio Skydance.

There will probably be more synergy-related cuts when the Paramount deal is done and if WBD merges with another company, which many see as likely.

However, there are still pockets of hiring elsewhere.

Companies still have cuts to make

Given their business outlook and competitive dynamics, legacy TV companies will need to make their sales forces even more tech-enabled and cost-efficient, said Christopher Vollmer, managing director at ad industry consultancy MediaLink. He predicted these sales forces could end up numbering half of what they were at the height of Peak TV in 2022.

Media companies that are hiring right now are drilling down on monetizing their streaming platforms as Wall Street pushes for streaming profits.

“The streaming wars is the context where everyone has massively overpaid for content and over-contented to win subscribers in the short-term,” said Simon Francis, co-CEO of Flock Associates, a marketing consultancy.

“It’s now an advertising sales war,” he said, adding that media companies are looking to monetize the audiences they’ve spent so much money to acquire.

That doesn’t necessarily mean a big increase in advertising headcount is coming, though.

Advertisers often buy streaming ads in automated ways rather than by show or time slot, which doesn’t require a big team of expensive sellers. Netflix, which recently parted ways with its former ad sales leader Peter Naylor, a TV advertising veteran, is now looking for a replacement with digital expertise to build programmatic products, B-17 previously reported.

Automation is also playing a bigger role at traditional media companies as they try to grow by making it easier for small and medium-sized companies to advertise. Disney has said it plans to automate half its ad sales.

“State Farm and Progressive can’t buy everything,” a veteran seller said, speaking anonymously to protect job prospects.

Over in the agency business, many industry observers saw GroupM’s hire of Brian Lesser as its global CEO this summer as a sign that WPP’s media-investment company was placing an even greater focus on adtech versus hiring people with experience in traditional buying. Lesser had previously led AT&T’s advertising and adtech unit Xandr and WPP’s now-defunct programmatic ad buying unit Xaxis.

Where the jobs are now

There are still opportunities to be found at tech platforms like Google and Amazon, even as tech companies have slowed their hiring pace.

There are also roles open at newer platforms and adtech companies that are trying to capitalize on the shift to streaming TV.

Roku has been looking for people with agency relationships to tap big sources of client dollars.

Mobile ad company Kargo is hiring around 50 people this year as it rides the connected TV wave. Kargo founder and CEO Harry Kargman sees more chances to hire than he did a few years ago.

“There’s a lot of good people who are interested in making a change,” Kargman said. “The number of good job opportunities are few and far between because the large media companies are not hiring as quickly. The Amazons and Googles and Metas of the world aren’t hiring at the same rates as they used to, and many of our competitors are focused on EBITDA and not hiring as much.”

The rollup of adtech firms Outbrain and Teads in August may usher in new hires as a way to drive sales at the combined company.

But offers are more likely to go to people who represent data-driven sales over the old-school, relationship-based approach to selling, like Krishan Bhatia, who Amazon snagged from NBCUniversal and who has brought some of his colleagues with him.

People with sports ad sales backgrounds are likely to have a leg up, too, as companies like Amazon and NBCU double down on sports distribution rights to secure one of the few guarantees of TV viewership.

“Ad sales is no longer ad sales,” said Gary Stolkin, global CEO of The Talent Business, a global executive search firm specializing in the creative industries. In short, many businesses are looking for a master of all trades.

“As media and entertainment platforms continue to pivot their business models in the face of new technology and AI-driven targeting, these hires are about delivering more strategic revenue growth across advertising, partnerships, sponsorship, and content,” Stolkin added. “They may even include a creator strategy, given the pivotal role of creators in driving performance, engagement, and revenue.”

One exec who’s on the job market and spoke anonymously to protect job prospects said platforms are also spending as much time grilling candidates about their emotional intelligence as their sales strategy.

“Companies are really doing their due diligence,” this person said.