Head of Planning

Head of Planning

Position: Full Time/Permanent

Location: Daily Mail Headquarters, HSK, London, W8 5HY

About the Role

The Daily Mail is recruiting a Head of Planning to identify and coordinate content promotion across our digital platforms. The right candidate will work across the newsroom to co-ordinate the selection and promotion of key digital articles, ensuring that the value of Mail journalism is unmistakable to our audiences and maximising reach and engagement for our most ambitious work. 

This is a newly created role and sits at the intersection of journalism, audience strategy and editorial planning. The role is ideal for someone who can combine strong editorial judgment with an analytical mindset and project management skills. They will need to forward plan with discipline against a moving news agenda and work confidently with senior editors to land high-impact journalism with the visibility it deserves. 

Main Responsibilities  

• Lead digital editorial planning and coordinate coverage for big news events, working with senior editorial leaders to identify the stories that best showcase Daily Mail journalism 

• Work with senior editors on headline choices, paywall decisions and wider recirculation strategy for each piece 

• Build strong relationships with editors and stakeholders across the newsroom and the wider business to embed planning and promotion best practices 

• Be responsible for coordinating the end-to-end production process from selection to publishing, managing lead times appropriate to the type and ambition of each piece 

• Coordinate the creation of supporting promotional assets, working closely with newsroom desks as well as design, video and social teams and stakeholders across the wider business 

• Plan multichannel editorial and marketing promotion, as well as repromotion to sustain visibility beyond the initial publishing window 

• Set up and manage workflows for content selection, publishing and promotion, with on-platform and off-platform teams 

• Maintain the content calendar and communicate plans to all teams who need to know 

• Establish the forum and cadence for reviewing performance data and present insights to senior editors with authority, clarity and confidence 

• Feed insights into improving selection and production, making recommendations to continuously improve the content planning model and performance 

• Stay up to date with industry trends, digital storytelling formats and audience behaviors across channels 

Person Specification

• Bachelor’s degree or qualification in journalism, communications, marketing or a related field 

• At least 3 years’ experience in editorial planning, content strategy or production within a digital newsroom, ideally in a subscriptions business 

• Strong editorial judgement and the ability to identify the stories that will move audiences and drive subscriptions 

• Comfortable interpreting audience and content performance data and using it to inform selection, timing and promotion decisions 

• Proven project management skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple stakeholders to tight deadlines 

• Audience-first mindset and deep understanding of digital news publishing, content formats and audience behavior across channels, including social platforms 

• Confident presenter, comfortable speaking to senior editors and stakeholders 

• Ability to support and coach experienced journalists, building trust and credibility 

• Creative problem-solving skills, a willingness to experiment, and the resilience to forward plan against a fast-moving news agenda 

About Daily Mail

Daily Mail is an award-winning, multi-platform newsbrand reaching more than 33 million print and online readers each month. The world-famous Mail offers a unique blend of breaking news, agenda-setting exclusives, showbiz, Femail, health, sport and lifestyle stories across print, digital, video, audio and social channels.

Its global newsroom of journalists, formidable story-getting power, and breadth of content formats delivers highly engaging, trusted Daily Mail content to millions of loyal and new audiences. Daily Mail is the largest news publisher on TikTok with more than 21 million total followers and more than 29 billion views in the past year. A trailblazing global phenomenon, Daily Mail is part of dmg media.

Package Description

Our benefits package increases the longer you’ve been with us. Here’s what to expect:

• 25 days’ holiday (increasing by 1 per year up to a total of 30)
• Pension plan and life cover
• Discounts on online shopping, dining cards and vouchers, and access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• Onsite gym, subsidised canteen and onsite nurse and GP clinics

Plus much more...

Our Commitment

We are committed to increasing diversity and maintaining an inclusive workplace culture. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability.

We are Disability Confident Committed. Please let us know if you require any recruitment documentation in other formats or if you require reasonable adjustments to be made during the recruitment process. Please be assured that any such information will be held separately to your recruitment application and will not be considered as part of the selection process