WeAreAspire
Senior Business Manager - Print Subscriptions & Retail
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Senior Business Manager - Print Subscriptions & Retail
Location: London - Hybrid
Employment Type: Permanent
Department: Publishing
Reports to: Director of Commercial Strategy
The Opportunity
A leading global news and media organisation is looking for an experienced Senior Business Manager to take ownership of the commercial performance of its print newspaper portfolio across subscriptions and retail/newsstand channels.
This is a highly commercial role responsible for driving revenue, profitability, circulation, subscriber value, and retention across the print business.
You will act as the central commercial lead for print performance, working closely with Marketing, Editorial, Advertising, Finance, and external retail partners to ensure the business delivers against its commercial targets.
Alongside managing day-to-day trading performance, you will play a key role in pricing strategy, forecasting, budgeting, promotional activity, and longer-term commercial planning.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Performance & P&L
- Own the in-year commercial performance of the newspaper portfolio across subscriptions and retail channels.
- Take responsibility for key performance measures including revenue, margin, ARPU, retention, and circulation.
- Deliver against agreed budgets and commercial targets, identifying risks, and taking corrective action where necessary.
- Lead subscription and retail trading activity across the newspaper portfolio.
- Run a regular trading cadence, analysing performance, and identifying opportunities to improve results.
- Translate wider print strategy into clear commercial plans and measurable outcomes.
Pricing & Revenue Growth
- Help set and implement subscription and newspaper cover pricing.
- Develop and execute pricing and promotional strategies to optimise revenue, volume, and customer lifetime value.
- Balance opportunities to increase ARPU with subscriber retention and churn considerations.
- Deliver promotional campaigns based on trading performance and commercial priorities.
- Use performance data to identify opportunities to increase revenue and profitability.
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Retail, Marketing & Partnerships
- Own commercial performance across retail and newsstand channels.
- Manage the retail marketing budget and ensure activity delivers measurable ROI.
- Partner with Marketing to deliver campaigns designed to increase newspaper sales and subscriptions.
- Manage relationships with major retail groups, industry partners, distributors, and suppliers.
- Improve newspaper distribution, visibility, and commercial performance across UK and international retail channels.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Act as the commercial lead for print performance across the organisation.
- Bring together Marketing, Editorial, Advertising, Finance, and other stakeholders around commercial priorities.
- Ensure teams are aligned around campaigns, trading plans, and performance targets.
- Work with advertising and publishing teams to optimise available inventory and maximise commercial opportunities.
Forecasting, Budgeting & Financial Management
- Own circulation and revenue forecasting for the newspaper portfolio.
- Lead regular reforecasting as volumes, subscriber numbers, or pricing assumptions change.
- Identify commercial risks and opportunities and develop appropriate mitigation plans.
- Lead annual budget planning for the print portfolio.
- Maintain strong financial control and visibility over performance throughout the year.
- Contribute commercial analysis to investment decisions and business cases.
Strategy & Continuous Improvement
- Provide commercial insight into future print strategy, propositions, and pricing.
- Use trading and customer data to influence longer-term decisions.
- Contribute to business cases for new products, propositions, and strategic initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve commercial performance, operational efficiency, and trading effectiveness.
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About You
You will ideally have:
- Strong commercial leadership experience within subscriptions, circulation, publishing, media, or another recurring-revenue environment.
- Experience owning significant revenue targets, budgets, or P&L performance.
- A strong understanding of pricing, promotions, retention, ARPU, and yield optimisation.
- Experience managing weekly or regular trading performance against commercial KPIs.
- Strong financial and analytical skills, including forecasting and budgeting.
- Experience using data to identify commercial opportunities and make trading decisions.
- Strong stakeholder management skills and experience working across Marketing, Sales, Finance, Operations, or Product teams.
- The ability to balance short-term revenue delivery with longer-term customer value.
- Experience managing commercial relationships with external partners, suppliers, or retailers would be highly advantageous.
What You'll Bring
- You will be commercially minded, analytical, and comfortable taking ownership of business performance.
- You will be able to move between detailed trading analysis and broader strategic thinking, while influencing multiple stakeholders and ensuring commercial plans are translated into action.
- Experience within newspapers or publishing would be valuable, although candidates from other subscription-led or consumer businesses with strong commercial trading experience may also be considered.
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