Location
London

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Competitive, dependent on experience

About the Role
The Financial Times is a globally recognised news organisation known for its authority, integrity and accuracy. We are seeking 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. This role centres on detailed weekly issue planning, coordinating advertising allocations, flat planning, inventory management, booking timelines and collaboration across Editorial, Production and Sales teams. You will ensure each issue is commercially optimised, accurately delivered and on schedule. Alongside weekly planning, you will contribute to longer-term commercial and portfolio planning, including forecasting advertising availability, assessing revenue performance, identifying inventory and yield opportunities, and supporting new product and commercial package development.

This role combines strategic oversight with hands-on delivery, requiring anticipation of risks, management of dependencies and alignment of multiple teams around evolving priorities and timelines. The ideal candidate will be an assured planner comfortable with detailed schedules, data and competing requirements, bringing excellent attention to detail, sound commercial judgement and strong relationship-building skills across editorial, production, sales and commercial teams.

Key Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end weekly planning for FT Weekend Magazine, aligning advertising, editorial and production requirements
- Manage 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 commercial priorities and issue quality
- Anticipate and resolve planning conflicts, capacity constraints and delivery risks
- Maintain accurate Salesforce reporting and advertising lists aligned with flat plans
- Liaise with Production on pagination, special executions, copy requirements and press schedules
- Coordinate issue logistics including subscriptions, voucher copies and distribution
- Maintain forward view of advertising availability and booking capacity across the FT Weekend portfolio
- Provide Sales teams with guidance on availability, advertising positions, pagination options and commercial timelines
- Track commercial targets and maintain revenue reporting and performance metrics
- Support revenue forecasting, capacity planning and yield optimisation
- Produce monthly and quarterly commercial insight reports
- Identify short-term commercial opportunities and contribute to longer-term commercial planning
- Act as primary commercial planning lead and key contact across Editorial, Production, Sales and Commercial teams
- Support Sales presentations, client projects and commercial enquiries
- Help improve planning processes and documentation across the portfolio

Experience
- Strong planning and organisational skills with experience managing detailed schedules and changing priorities
- Experience in advertising operations, media planning, publishing, product management, media sales or related commercial environments
- Proven ability to manage end-to-end planning processes and coordinate delivery across multiple teams
- Commercial competence balancing revenue priorities, inventory availability and operational requirements
- Confidence working with data, reporting, forecasting and performance analysis
- Experience using Salesforce is desirable
- Experience within luxury, media or publishing sectors is advantageous
- Knowledge of print production, flat planning, pagination, issue planning or advertising operations is beneficial

About you
- Excellent attention to detail and methodical approach to maintaining accurate plans and documentation
- Ability to anticipate risks and resolve problems proactively
- Strong relationship management and communication skills to work effectively across editorial, production, sales and commercial teams
- Clear and confident written and verbal communication skills
- Proactive and collaborative with confidence to take ownership and make informed decisions independently
- Interest in the FT Weekend portfolio and wider luxury, lifestyle and media landscape is a plus

Qualifications
- No specific formal qualifications required, but relevant commercial or media experience is essential