Profile
Advertising Operations Manager with over 20 years’ experience across national newspapers and magazine publishing. Specialist in advertising workflow management, campaign delivery and cross-department coordination between commercial, editorial and production teams. Currently responsible for print advertising operations across The Observer, Observer Magazine and New Review, ensuring accurate delivery of advertising campaigns within strict weekly press deadlines while supporting commercial revenue objectives.
Publications & Portfolio Experience
Core Skills
Project Management
Experienced in managing complex advertising workflows across multiple publications, coordinating with commercial teams, production departments and external partners to ensure advertising is delivered accurately and on schedule, often under strict press deadlines.
Advertising Operations & Print Production
Extensive experience managing advertising operations across magazine and newspaper publishing, including flatplanning, ad trafficking, advertorial production and ensuring all materials meet print specifications and publication deadlines.
Commercial Stakeholder Management
Strong experience working with sales teams, agencies, clients and production teams to manage advertising campaigns, maintain clear communication and ensure commercial objectives are delivered effectively.
Artwork & Layout Production
Highly skilled in creating and preparing print advertising layouts, advertorial features and artwork using industry-standard design tools while maintaining visual consistency with brand guidelines.
Advertising Operations Management
Extensive experience overseeing end-to-end advertising workflows across print publications, including ad trafficking, campaign scheduling, flatplanning and production coordination across multiple titles.
Cross-Department Coordination
Experienced in working closely with editorial, commercial, design and production teams to ensure advertising is delivered efficiently while maintaining editorial integrity and brand standards.
Deadline-Driven Publishing Workflows
Highly experienced in managing advertising delivery within strict weekly and monthly press deadlines, ensuring advertising materials are received, processed and placed accurately across complex publication schedules.
Advertising Campaign Delivery
Responsible for ensuring the accurate delivery of advertising campaigns across multiple high-profile print publications, balancing commercial requirements with editorial production schedules while maintaining strict quality and compliance standards.
Technical Proficiency
Adobe Suite
Design & Prepress
CMS & Booking Systems
Productivity
Work Experience
Ad Operations Manager
Responsible for managing advertising operations across The Observer’s print portfolio including the Observer Newspaper, Observer Magazine and New Review. Working closely with the commercial and editorial teams to coordinate advertising placement, manage production workflows and ensure all advertising is delivered accurately and on time within tight weekly press deadlines.
- Manage all print advertising operations across the Observer Newspaper, Magazine and New Review.
- Coordinate closely with commercial sales teams regarding bookings, advertising space and deadlines.
- Oversee ad trafficking, flatplanning and advertising placement across multiple titles.
- Ensure all advertising materials meet technical specifications and production standards.
- Liaise with clients, agencies and internal teams to resolve advertising queries or technical issues.
- Maintain compliance with ASA/CAP advertising regulations and editorial brand guidelines.
- Manage advertising workflows to ensure accuracy, efficiency and deadline delivery.
Key Achievement
Successfully helped establish and manage advertising operations following the Observer’s transition to an independent business structure, ensuring continuity in advertising workflows previously handled externally. By coordinating closely with commercial teams and implementing structured processes for ad trafficking, flatplanning and production, I helped ensure advertising delivery remained accurate and efficient during a period of organisational change while maintaining strict press deadlines across all titles.
Senior Account Manager
Managed advertising operations and production for classified and advertorial content across the Hearst magazine portfolio, working closely with agencies, commercial teams and international production teams to ensure advertising delivery met tight editorial deadlines.
- Managed all advertising operations relating to classified and advertorial content within the Hearst portfolio.
- Coordinated with agencies to ensure booking accuracy and advertising availability across titles.
- Delivered advertising specifications and managed production scheduling.
- Managed classified advertising production including copy chasing, flatplanning, layout design and proofing.
- Oversaw collaboration with international production teams to maintain workflow continuity.
Key Achievement
Led the transition of advertising operations work from Hearst to Rhapsody by onboarding and managing the Rhapsody Poland production team, ensuring continuity of service across multiple magazine titles. Through structured project management and close coordination with stakeholders, the transition was completed smoothly without disruption to production schedules. Additionally, I helped secure additional commercial work on Delicious magazine by collaborating with Canopy Media to develop new workflow processes for ad feature pages.
Production Designer
Responsible for producing high-quality advertising artwork and advertorial layouts across multiple magazine brands following Hearst’s acquisition of Hachette Filipacchi’s magazine division.
- Created advertising artwork based on client briefs for print publications.
- Repurposed supplied creative to ensure consistency and quality in final print output.
- Performed image manipulation, retouching, colour correction and contract proofing.
- Maintained brand consistency across advertising and advertorial pages.
- Designed and managed online competitions and digital advertising campaigns.
Key Achievement
Designed and implemented new layout templates for ad feature pages across several publications, helping ensure visual consistency while improving production efficiency for recurring advertising formats. I also contributed to a small internal team that developed an in-house intranet and advertising portal using WordPress, which streamlined advertising submission processes and reduced reliance on external systems, delivering operational cost savings for the business.
Advertising Production Controller
Managed classified advertising production and ad trafficking across the magazine portfolio, ensuring correct placement and delivery of advertising materials within tight press schedules.
- Managed classified advertising production across multiple magazine titles.
- Coordinated advertising delivery between commercial teams, clients and printers.
- Managed ad trafficking and placement including loose inserts and display advertising.
- Pre-flighted advertising files and resolved technical production issues.
Key Achievement
Acted as a key operational link between sales teams, clients and production departments to ensure accurate advertising placement and timely delivery across multiple publications. By maintaining rigorous pre-flight checks and proactively resolving technical issues with advertising files, I helped reduce production errors and ensured smooth workflow during demanding press schedules.
Desktop Publishing Operative
Produced classified and display advertisements while supporting pagination and advertising layout production across the publication.
- Created classified and display advertisements according to client briefs.
- Typeset advertising copy and proofread content for accuracy.
- Prepared booking information for entry into the CRM system.
- Assisted with flatplanning and pagination before issues were sent to press.
Key Achievement
Proactively developed my design and production skills while working in the classified advertising department, enabling progression from typesetting and proofreading responsibilities into desktop publishing and creative production work. This development included producing full-page advertisements, cover pages and advanced image retouching within the publication’s in-house creative studio.
Customer Accounts Assistant
Managed customer queries and regulatory requests relating to the National Gas Meter Database while supporting operational and compliance processes.
- Resolved queries from gas shipping companies and regulatory bodies including Ofgem.
- Maintained the National Gas Meter Database using infrastructure mapping systems.
- Liaised with engineers, meter readers and gas suppliers to verify technical data.
- Organised and chaired internal meetings, producing reports and action notes.
Key Achievement
Implemented a mentoring scheme for new employees within the department, providing structured training and ongoing support to help new starters develop the technical knowledge required to manage regulatory queries and database systems effectively.
School Orders Clerk
Processed and managed book orders for schools across the UK while supporting customer service and internal order processing functions.
- Processed book orders for primary and secondary schools.
- Generated invoices and handled customer enquiries.
- Managed order fulfilment tasks including security tagging and packaging.
- Retrieved customer information using Microfiche systems.
Key Achievement
Maintained efficient order processing workflows while supporting both internal teams and external customers, ensuring school orders were fulfilled accurately and delivered on time during peak seasonal ordering periods.
Education & Training
Education
Sandwell College
NVQ Mechanical Engineering
Moseley Secondary School
8 GCSEs
Training
Hearst Magazines UK
- Advanced InDesign for Print
- Advanced Photoshop for Print and Web Design
Transco
- Train the Trainer Course
- Customer Service Course
- Customer Ethos Training
Get In Touch
References available upon request.