Digital Creative Content Strategist (freelance)

Digital Creative Content Strategist (freelance)

Hearst Media Production Group (HMPG) is seeking a Digital Creative Content Strategist to support digital content strategies, creative concepts, and original digital series across HMPG broadcast series, digital originals, and upcoming business opportunities. This individual contributor role has no direct reports, though it may help guide editors, freelancers, producers, and production partners on specific executions.

Working closely with the Digital Director and Digital Content Strategy Manager, this role helps shape content from strategy through execution, including building strategy decks, contributing to platform and channel recommendations, ideating digital activations, supporting digital original production planning, working with talent and creators, and occasionally traveling to shoots to capture content. The role also provides creative guidance to producers and editors through post-production. Final creative approval sits with the Digital Director and Digital Content Strategy Manager.

This position reports to the Digital Content Strategy Manager and is based in Glendale, CA, four days per week.

Responsibilities

- Support the development of content strategies by researching platforms, identifying audience trends, drafting content pillars, and preparing first-pass strategic materials.
- Contribute platform-specific recommendations that help define what content belongs on each channel, how it should be formatted, audience fit and how it supports marketing goals.
- Work with editors, producers, and creative teams to help define the visual look and feel of original digital content, including pacing, graphics, recurring formats, captions, voice, and platform-native treatments.
- Support business development by ideating digital activations, social extensions, creator integrations, talent ideas, original formats, audience engagement strategies, and practical production approaches for proposed broadcast and digital productions.
- Support productions and their planning by gathering inputs related to various production departments and timelines.
- Assist digital productions by preparing shoot agendas, shoot priorities, run-of-show documents, production notes, and creative briefs. May lead to smaller-scale digital shoots or content captures with oversight.
- Travel to select shoots to support digital capture, production oversight, talent direction, and real-time creative decision-making; capture behind-the-scenes footage, social-first clips, interviews, talent moments, and supplemental assets when needed.
- Research and recommend digital creators, influencers, editors, freelancers, and production partners.
- Provide editors and producers with clear creative direction, pacing guidance, platform formatting direction, and visual references.

Internet Fluency and Cultural Judgment

- Live natively on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram as both a viewer and participant. This person does not need platform behavior explained to them and should bring informed opinions about what is working now, backed by real examples.
- Be chronically online in the best sense: consuming a high volume of content, developing strong taste, and knowing how to separate signal from noise.
- Bring sharp instincts for what feels current versus dated, forced, or unnecessary trend chasing. Understand creator culture, meme cycles, comment behavior, fandom dynamics, and each platform’s tone.
- Apply critical judgment to trends, copy, and strategy. This person should eliminate corporate, algorithmic, or AI-generated language, push back constructively, and flag ideas that may look good in a deck but will not connect with a real audience.

Experience

- 3+ years of experience in digital media, entertainment, branded content, social video, digital originals, creator-led production, or broadcast-adjacent content development.
- Proven ability to create content strategy decks, pitch materials, client-facing presentations, creative proposals, or social content plans.
- Hands-on background developing or producing digital original content, including short-form and long-form formats.
- Practical knowledge of production planning, shoot logistics, budgeting, staffing, talent coordination, set workflows, and post-production processes.
- Experience working with editors, producers, creators, influencers, talent, production teams, clients, and cross-functional stakeholders. Experience with educational, family-friendly, youth, lifestyle, sports, or mission-driven programming is preferred.

Qualifications

- Strong understanding of social platforms, digital video formats, audience behavior, creator culture, and platform-specific creative strategy.
- Comfortable discussing digital analytics, audience growth, engagement, video performance, retention, content optimization, and platform trends.
- Strong writing skills, including strategic positioning, captions, tone of voice, creative copy, pitch language, and presentation copy.
- Ability to guide editors and producers on visual style, pacing, structure, graphics, format, and storytelling approach.
- Familiarity with digital production equipment and workflows, including DSLR or cinema-style cameras, lighting, sound, lavaliers, and field production tools.
- Excellent communication, presentation, organization, and time-management skills; able to manage multiple shows, deadlines, priorities, and stakeholders at once.
- Candidates must possess a valid passport with at least 18 months of remaining validity at the time of hire and must be willing and able to travel as needed.

Portfolio Requirement

Applicants must provide a portfolio or work samples that demonstrate digital content strategy, social-first creative ideas, campaign examples, writing samples, digital video work, or platform-specific content execution. Link documents or upload PDF with links to samples.

Education

- Related experience and/or training will be considered as well as a combination of education and experience.
- HMPG is a proud supporter of military veterans. Related military training and experience will be considered.

Values in Action

At Hearst Television we tell stories every day. Stories about people of all cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, and identities. That's why, behind the scenes, we believe in being an organization as diverse and varied as the audience we reach, ensuring that the content we create is more compassionate, and more representative of the communities we serve.

Benefits

Eligible employees will have access to enroll in health coverage through our partnership with Entertainment Partners’ EP Cares program.

- Medical
- Dental
- Vision
- Emotional Wellness Support
- Additional benefits to meet your and your family's needs

The estimated base range for this role is $41.00 to $46.00 per hour. The actual base pay offered is dependent upon many factors, such as transferable skills, work experience, business needs, market demands and conditions, including geographic location where the work will be performed, and other factors permitted by law. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

About Company

Hearst Media Production Group (HMPG), a business unit of Hearst Television, is an independent producer and distributor of original programming for TV stations, broadcast and cable networks and streaming services. HMPG produces hundreds of hours of Emmy® Award-winning programming annually across linear, streaming, digital and social media platforms for domestic and international distribution in 100 countries. Its popular weekly educational/informational (E/I) programming blocks air weekends nationwide including “Weekend Adventure,” on ABC stations; “CBS WKND,” on the CBS Network; “The More You Know,” on the NBC Network; “One Magnificent Morning,” on the CW Network; “Mi Telemundo” on the Telemundo Network and “Go Time” on independent stations. HMPG also produces and/or distributes a diverse slate of other programming and content including the company’s dedicated FAST channels Xplore, The Jack Hanna Channel, Rovr Pets, and Lucky Dog Channel, available on some of the most popular smart TVs and streaming platforms. HMPG has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Charlotte. HMPG is represented by United Talent Agency.