Advertising Executive
Job description
About the role
The Financial Times seeks a commercially minded and highly organised Advertising Executive to own the planning and operational delivery of the FT Weekend portfolio. This role is owned by the candidate, who will lead end-to-end coordination across editorial, production, and sales teams. You will ensure every issue of FT Weekend Magazine is planned, commercialised, and delivered accurately and on schedule. The position demands curiosity, accountability, and the ability to turn complex schedules into reliable execution. You will shape the commercial strategy while maintaining meticulous attention to detail. Your work will directly influence the reach and impact of FT Weekend content.
Key facts
What you'll do
Lead the weekly planning process for FT Weekend Magazine, aligning advertising, editorial, and production requirements.
Own flat planning, advertising allocation, and issue closure in partnership with editorial and production stakeholders.
Develop and maintain detailed issue plans, schedules, and critical paths covering booking deadlines, creative delivery, pagination, copy requirements, and press timelines.
Plan advertising positions and inventory to balance commercial priorities with the overall quality of each issue.
Anticipate potential planning conflicts, capacity constraints, and delivery risks, resolving issues before they affect publication.
Handle changes to issue plans efficiently, ensuring all relevant teams understand impacts 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 promptly.
Liaise with production teams on pagination, special executions, copy requirements, and press schedules.
Plan and source filler content where required to support effective issue closure and reader engagement.
Coordinate issue logistics, including subscriptions, voucher copies, and distribution requirements across channels.
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.
Requirements
Demonstrate strong planning and organisational skills, with experience handling detailed schedules, dependencies, and changing priorities in a publishing context.
Bring prior experience in advertising operations, media planning, publishing, product management, media sales, or a related commercial environment.
Show a proven ability to manage an end-to-end planning process and coordinate delivery across multiple teams without constant supervision.
Exhibit strong commercial competence, balancing revenue priorities, inventory availability, and operational requirements under tight deadlines.
Display excellent attention to detail and a methodical approach to maintaining accurate plans, data, and documentation across systems.
Confidence working with data, reporting, forecasting, and performance analysis to inform decisions and recommendations.
Possess the ability to anticipate risks and resolve problems proactively before they affect publication timelines or quality.
Show strong relationship-management skills, working effectively across editorial, production, sales, and commercial teams with professionalism.
Communicate clearly and confidently in writing and verbally, ensuring plans, timelines, and changes are understood by all collaborators.
Use solid working knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word to build schedules, reports, and commercial documentation.
Identify commercial opportunities and translate insights into practical, deliverable plans that align with FT standards.
Adopt a proactive and collaborative approach, taking ownership of processes and making informed decisions independently.
Understand the importance of compliance with Financial Times policies, accuracy standards, and brand expectations in every task.
Demonstrate resilience and adaptability when managing multiple deadlines and shifting priorities in a fast-paced news environment.
Maintain discretion and integrity when handling commercial data, client information, and internal planning documents.
Nice to have
Experience using Salesforce to track advertising bookings and reporting accurately.
Background within luxury, media, or publishing sectors, with an understanding of premium audience expectations.
Knowledge of print production, flat planning, pagination, issue planning, and advertising operations procedures.
Experience handling advertising inventory, booking schedules, and publishing timelines across multiple channels.
Experience supporting sales teams with availability planning, collateral, reporting, and client-facing materials.
Experience contributing to revenue forecasting, yield planning, and commercial performance analysis for portfolio optimisation.
A demonstrated interest in the FT Weekend portfolio and the wider luxury, lifestyle, and media landscape.
Practical notes
This is a permanent, full-time role based in London.
The position follows a 50% hybrid working model, averaging two to three days onsite to support collaboration and team cohesion.
Flexible working pattern requests will be considered where feasible to support role requirements and team alignment.
Candidates must be legally authorised to work in the United Kingdom.
The Financial Times is committed to accessibility and encourages applicants who require reasonable adjustments to contact talent@ft.com for support.
Use of AI tools in the application process is permitted, provided all information remains authentic and accurately reflects your skills, experience, and qualifications.