Marketing Director

We’re looking for a senior growth marketer to lead audience and subscriber growth across our digital portfolio. This is a high-impact role for an ambitious, commercially-minded marketer who thrives on combining analytical thinking with creative execution.

Your team will lead the marketing team behind one of the world’s most iconic and trusted news brands, The Times and The Sunday Times. At a pivotal moment in the evolution of subscription media, marketing sits at the heart of our commercial strategy and long-term growth ambition. You’ll lead a high-performing, collaborative team operating in a fast-paced publishing environment where data, storytelling, audience insight and creativity come together to drive meaningful subscriber growth. Working closely with product, editorial, data and commercial teams, you’ll help shape how millions of readers discover, engage with and subscribe to some of the most influential journalism in the world.

Your role involves owning the brand marketing, performance marketing and lifecycle and engagement strategy, ensuring investment is optimised against subscriber growth, retention and revenue targets. You’ll play a critical role in scaling our subscriber base through sophisticated audience segmentation, customer messaging and performance optimisation. This is an opportunity to help shape the future growth of an iconic media brand - balancing commercial performance with the responsibility that comes from growing a trusted journalism business with national influence. Reporting into the General Manager, you’ll have visibility across the organisation and the autonomy to influence strategy at scale.

Day to day you will:

• Develop and execute growth strategies that scale subscriber acquisition while strengthening long-term customer value and engagement.
• Lead brand marketing initiatives that strengthen awareness, consideration and affinity for one of the world’s most iconic news brands, ensuring performance activity and long‑term brand building work together to drive sustainable subscriber growth.
• Own and manage marketing budget allocation across acquisition, retention and audience growth channels, maximising efficiency and return on investment.
• Lead audience segmentation and targeting strategies using behavioural, demographic and first‑party data insights.
• Identify opportunities for base growth across digital channels, partnerships, content distribution and lifecycle marketing.
• Drive channel performance across paid social, search, display, affiliates, CRM and emerging acquisition platforms.
• Build rigorous testing and optimisation frameworks to improve conversion, engagement and retention across the subscriber journey.
• Translate marketing performance data into clear commercial recommendations and actionable insights for senior stakeholders.
• Partner closely with editorial, product and analytics teams to align audience growth opportunities with content strategy and reader experience.
• Monitor attribution, incrementality and marketing effectiveness to ensure investment decisions are commercially sound and data‑led.
• Champion a culture of experimentation, continuous learning and growth‑focused decision making across the wider business.

What we’re looking for from you:

• Significant experience in a growth marketing leadership role within a subscription, digital consumer or media business.
• Proven ownership of sizeable marketing budgets and multi‑channel investment strategies.
• Strong understanding of audience segmentation, customer lifecycle management and subscriber growth dynamics.
• A data‑driven mindset with the ability to turn complex performance insights into clear strategic action.
• Experience driving measurable acquisition and retention growth through testing, optimisation and experimentation.
• Commercial acumen combined with creative thinking and strong consumer intuition.
• Confidence influencing senior stakeholders and collaborating cross‑functionally across editorial, product and commercial teams.
• A passion for journalism, storytelling and building meaningful relationships with audiences at scale.

Working conditions:

At News UK, we embrace a hybrid work model, currently requiring a minimum of three days per week in the office. This approach fosters collaboration, innovation, and team spirit within our workspace. Certain roles may necessitate additional in‑office days; please discuss this with your recruiter for specific requirements.

Benefits include:

• Private medical insurance including coverage for pre‑existing conditions.
• Discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass at Home, weekly in‑person/virtual exercise classes.
• Bikes for Work and Electric Car scheme.
• Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books.
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks.
• Access to exclusive events and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times.
• Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities.
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling.
• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions up to 5%.
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access.
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays and up to 4 volunteering days per year.