Group Nine Media was named one of the top ten most-watched media companies in the world by Tubular. The company is home to digital brands Thrillist, NowThis, Seeker, and The Dodo, which ranked #5 on Tubular across all U. S. media creators in 2018.
As a founding member of the Global Video Measurement Alliance, Group Nine is a true thought leader not only in the best ways to make videos work today, but also in how new video measurement standards can unlock value for advertisers and publishers around the world.
This interview with Group Nine is with Ashish Patel, Chief Insights Officer, and Bobby LaCivita, Senior Director of Research. We talked about the company’s success with digital videos in 2018. Click the questions below to jump to each insight!.
Interviewing at Group Nine Media can be an exciting yet nerve-wracking experience As a leading digital media company reaching over 50% of all Americans in their 20s, Group Nine has high standards for its employees With popular brands like Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo, and Seeker under its umbrella, Group Nine is seeking creative, collaborative, and driven individuals to join its team.
To help you prepare for a Group Nine Media interview, here is an overview of the company and the types of questions candidates can expect With some preparation and practice, you can put your best foot forward and show the interviewers why you’re the perfect fit for an open role.
About Group Nine Media
Founded in 2016 Group Nine Media brings together top brands that engage and inspire passionate millennial and Gen Z audiences. The company has quickly grown into a leading digital media business through strategic acquisitions and investments in premium content creators.
Group Nine specializes in social video, digital storytelling, and interactive experiences that get content shared. Its brands seamlessly integrate the accessibility and interactivity of social media with high-quality programming.
With over 7 billion video views per month, Group Nine reaches over 50% of all millennials and Gen Z nationwide. The company is based in New York with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. It has a growing team of over 500 employees across its brands.
Group Nine Media brands include:
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Thrillist: The leading digital brand for food, drink, travel, and entertainment. Its award-winning editorial covers the best in food, nightlife, and travel for the young professional crowd.
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NowThis: A social news brand informing its audience about world events and issues through insightful, meaningful content. It is the #1 most watched mobile news brand globally.
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The Dodo: A digital brand telling stories about animals and animal lovers. It provides captivating animal content that inspires and educates millions of animal lovers.
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Seeker: A digital media brand satisfying curiosity and exploring the unknown through premium video. It investigates mysteries, explains fascinating science, and explores our amazing planet.
Common Group Nine Media Interview Questions
The interview process at Group Nine Media typically involves one or two rounds of interviews, either in-person or video interviews. Interview questions aim to assess your skills and fit for the available role.
Some common questions candidates can expect during a Group Nine Media interview include:
General Interview Questions
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Walk me through your resume and past experiences. This is often one of the first questions in an interview. Be prepared to provide an overview of your background, highlighting key experiences relevant to the role. Focus on accomplishments that align with Group Nine’s values.
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Why do you want to work at Group Nine Media? Share your enthusiasm for the company’s mission of engaging younger audiences through premium digital content and storytelling. Mention specific brands or content you enjoy from Group Nine.
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What gets you excited about this role? Explain why the open position is appealing to you. Show how your skills make you a great match for the job duties and company culture.
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How did you hear about this opportunity? Briefly share how you came across the job posting and what made you decide to apply.
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What are your salary expectations? Have a salary range in mind based on market research of the role and your experience level. You can dodge specifics by saying you’re open to discussing compensation that matches the responsibility level of the position.
Culture Fit Questions
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How would your previous managers or coworkers describe your work style? Discuss qualities like your communication skills, collaborative spirit, and work ethic. Have examples ready to illustrate these points.
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Tell me about a time you faced a challenge on a team. How did you handle it? Share a story demonstrating your conflict resolution abilities, emotional intelligence, and focus on solutions.
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What is most important to you in a company culture? Talk about the value you place on open communication, diversity, innovation, learning opportunities, etc. Explain how Group Nine’s culture aligns with this.
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How do you stay up-to-date on the digital media world? Show your curiosity and desire to continuously learn new platforms, trends, and tools in the industry. Share any blogs, newsletters, or thought leaders you follow.
Role-Specific Questions
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What experience do you have creating content on tight deadlines? Provide examples of times you produced high-quality content under time constraints in past roles. Discuss how you prioritize and manage competing priorities.
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How would you attract new audiences to our brands and content? Share creative promotion tactics and how you keep a pulse on trending topics that connect with younger demographics.
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What analytics or metrics do you rely on to gauge content performance? Demonstrate your familiarity with key data like pageviews, engagement, dwell time, completion rate, etc. Explain how you use insights to shape content strategies.
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Tell me about a successful cross-team collaboration you led. What made it effective? Illustrate your ability to coordinate across departments like Editorial, Social, Design, etc. to accomplish goals and promote unity.
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How would you optimize video content for different platforms and audiences? Discuss best practices for customizing video length, style, captions, etc. based on viewer behaviors and preferences on each platform. Show your strong multi-platform knowledge.
Tips for Acing Your Group Nine Media Interview
With preparation, research, and practice, you can feel confident and ready to interview for an open position at Group Nine Media. Here are some top tips:
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Study Group Nine’s website and brands so you understand the company’s full content offerings and mission. Follow their social media channels to get familiar with their tone and content style.
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Research your interviewers on LinkedIn to personalize your responses and highlight shared connections or experiences.
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Review common digital media and content creation interview questions to polish your responses and think through engaging stories and examples you can share.
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Practice your answers out loud to common questions until you can confidently yet naturally talk about your background and interests.
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Prepare questions to ask the interviewers to show your enthusiasm for the company and eagerness to learn more. Inquire about things like company growth plans, new content initiatives, or company culture.
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Review the job description thoroughly and be ready to share experiences and accomplishments that directly relate to the role’s responsibilities. Provide quantifiable results when possible.
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Dress professionally and avoid casual attire even for virtual interviews. You want to make a polished first impression on the interviewers.
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Sell yourself and the value you’ll bring to the team, but stay authentic. Use the interview to highlight your unique combination of hard and soft skills.
With an outstanding digital media brand portfolio and engaging company culture, Group Nine Media is an exciting place to grow your career in content creation. By being your genuine self while also preparing for common interview questions and tips, you can make a great impression. Do your research and believe in yourself, and you’ll be ready to land your dream role producing buzzworthy content at this innovative media organization.
T: How did you define success across those goals?
AP: Audience reaction is at the forefront of our minds when determining what content is successful or not. For example, if our stories reach a large audience, that shows we understand the market opportunities. From a KPI point of view, success means that the number of people who see, interact with, and spend time on content is high, but no single metric is more important than the others.
But we also think about the big picture and how the lifetime value of our content can be turned into money. For us, that means our content needs to keep engaging our audience at the same or higher levels over time. At that point, we can consider means of monetizing our audience’s attention.
Tubular: What was Group Nine’s primary goal for 2018 when it came to video?
Ashish Patel: We are a fully distributed media company that primarily produces and distributes high-quality video IP. The main thing we always try to do is figure out where and why people spend their time on different platforms. That way, we can make videos that are relevant to those places.
Since we are one of the biggest distributed players, our main goal last year was to reach more users through channels we hadn’t tried before. But we didn’t stop there. We also aimed to increase the time users spent on our content across the board.
To put it another way, more people, more places, and more time were all related to the main goal of making brands that matter and more IP, or original stories that have lasting value.
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