At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead planning for FT Weekend Magazine, coordinating advertising and editorial requirements.
- Company: Join the Financial Times, a globally recognised news organisation with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Enjoy generous leave, medical cover, gym memberships, and flexible working options.
- Other info: Be part of a diverse team that values unique perspectives and supports your growth.
- Why this job: Make an impact in media while developing your skills in a dynamic environment.
- Qualifications: Strong planning skills and experience in advertising operations or media planning.
The predicted salary is between 29700 - 36300 £ per year.
About Us
The Financial Times is one of the world's leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. Here, you're given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world. In our warm, collaborative culture, you'll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued.
The Role
We are looking for a commercially minded and highly organised Advertising Executive to lead the planning and operational delivery of the FT Weekend portfolio, with a primary focus on FT Weekend Magazine. Planning sits at the heart of this role. You will oversee the weekly planning cycle for FT Weekend Magazine, coordinating advertising allocations, flat planning, inventory, booking timelines and collaborator management across Editorial, Production and Sales. Alongside weekly issue planning, you will contribute to longer-term commercial and portfolio planning. This will include forecasting advertising availability, assessing revenue performance, identifying inventory and yield opportunities, and supporting the development of future products and commercial packages. The role combines forward planning and strategic oversight with detailed, hands-on delivery. You will need to anticipate risks, handle dependencies and keep multiple teams aligned around changing priorities and timelines.
The ideal candidate will be an assured planner who is comfortable working with detailed schedules, data and competing requirements. You will bring excellent attention to detail, sound commercial judgement and the ability to build trusted relationships across editorial, production, sales and commercial teams.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the end-to-end weekly planning process for FT Weekend Magazine, ensuring advertising, editorial and production requirements are aligned.
- Own flat planning, advertising allocation and issue closure in partnership with Editorial and Production.
- Develop and maintain clear issue plans, schedules and critical paths covering booking deadlines, creative delivery, pagination, copy requirements and press deadlines.
- Plan advertising positions and inventory to support both commercial priorities and the overall quality of each issue.
- Anticipate potential planning conflicts, capacity constraints and delivery risks, advancing or resolving issues before they affect publication.
- Handle changes to issue plans efficiently, ensuring all relevant teams understand the impact on advertising, editorial content, pagination and deadlines.
- Maintain accurate Salesforce reporting and advertising lists, ensuring they remain fully aligned with agreed flat plans.
- Handle incoming creative against planned positions, timelines and specifications, raising any quality or suitability concerns.
- Plan and source filler content where required to support effective issue closure.
- Coordinate issue logistics, including subscriptions, voucher copies and distribution requirements.
- Maintain a forward view of advertising availability, inventory and booking capacity across the FT Weekend portfolio, including HTSI.
- Plan and supervise booking deadlines, inventory, filler content and issue requirements to support reliable weekly, quarterly and annual publishing schedules.
- Provide Sales teams with clear guidance on future availability, advertising positions, pagination options, production logistics and key commercial timelines.
- Coordinate renewals planning with Sales, ensuring upcoming opportunities, deadlines and capacity requirements are visible and effectively handled.
- Maintain accurate planning and sales documentation, including publishing schedules, media kits, rate cards, sales toolkits and operational guidance.
- Track commercial targets and maintain accurate, up-to-date revenue reporting and performance metrics across the portfolio.
- Support revenue forecasting, capacity planning and yield optimisation by aligning advertising demand with available inventory.
- Produce monthly and quarterly reporting that provides clear commercial insight, forward-looking analysis and practical recommendations.
- Conduct revenue audits and collate product and portfolio insights for global updates and wider business planning.
- Identify short-term commercial opportunities, including tactical packages, underused inventory and opportunities to improve yield.
- Contribute to longer-term commercial planning by identifying new revenue opportunities, product enhancements and potential changes to publishing plans.
- Use data and performance insights to support recommendations for new products, product improvements and portfolio development.
- Supervise market trends, competitor activity and product performance to advise commercial, inventory and portfolio plans.
- Act as the primary commercial planning lead for FT Weekend Magazine.
- Serve as a key point of contact across Editorial, Production, Sales and Commercial teams.
- Coordinate regular planning discussions to ensure teams are aligned on upcoming issues, timelines, inventory and commercial priorities.
- Support Sales presentations, client projects, special executions and commercial enquiries by confirming feasibility, availability and delivery requirements.
- Help improve planning processes, documentation and ways of working across the FT Weekend portfolio.
Required Skills and Experience
- Strong planning and organisational skills, with experience handling detailed schedules, dependencies and changing priorities.
- Experience in advertising operations, media planning, publishing, product management, media sales or a related commercial environment.
- Demonstrable ability to manage an end-to-end planning process and coordinate delivery across multiple teams.
- Strong commercial competence, with the ability to balance revenue priorities, inventory availability and operational requirements.
- Excellent attention to detail and a methodical approach to maintaining accurate plans, data and documentation.
- Confidence working with data, reporting, forecasting and performance analysis.
- Ability to anticipate risks and resolve problems before they affect delivery.
- Strong relationship-management skills, with the ability to work effectively across editorial, production, sales and commercial teams.
- Clear and confident written and verbal communication skills.
- Solid working knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint and Word.
- Ability to identify commercial opportunities and translate insight into practical, deliverable plans.
Desirable
- Experience using Salesforce.
- Knowledge of print production, flat planning, pagination, issue planning or advertising operations.
- Experience handling advertising inventory, booking schedules or publishing timelines.
- Experience supporting sales teams with availability planning, collateral, reporting or client-facing materials.
- Experience contributing to revenue forecasting, yield planning or commercial performance analysis.
- Interest in the FT Weekend portfolio and the wider luxury, lifestyle and media landscape.
These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. We've embraced a 50% hybrid working model, averaging two to three days onsite, that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible.
Accessibility
We are a Disability Confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Please beware of fraudulent job postings and offers claiming to be from the Financial Times. All legitimate opportunities will direct you to apply through the official Financial Times careers site, and the FT will never ask for financial information, payments or referrals to third parties during the hiring process. If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of a job posting or suspect any scam activity, please contact talent@ft.com.
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Campaign Planning Executive/coordinator in London employer: The Financial Times
The Financial Times is an exceptional employer, offering a vibrant and collaborative work culture that fosters curiosity and ambition. As a Companies Writer for Investors Chronicle, you'll have the opportunity to engage with a diverse community of experts, enjoy generous benefits including flexible working arrangements, and access numerous growth opportunities that empower you to shape your career in impactful journalism.
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