Commissioning Editor at LexisNexis

About the Role

We are currently offering an exciting opportunity for a Commissioning Editor (contract until the end of December) to play a key role in the continued success of the UK Content Acquisition team’s publication programme for print and online by commissioning leading professionals to write for us. The successful candidate will commission and develop content in print format as well as online meeting agreed revenue, profitability and delivery targets.

Key Responsibilities 

• Commission new content ensuring the most appropriate author is identified to deliver high quality content which meets customer expectations in a timely manner.
• Review, maintain and develop existing content to ensure that it continues to meet customer expectations.
• Manage the commissioning process, agreeing content, budget and deadlines with authors; manage output and content quality against these deliverables.
• Prepare and present business cases for new products and enhancements.
• Contribute to the budgeting and re-forecasting process and own and manage publications.
• Develop and maintain relationships with existing and potential authors to enable smooth commissioning of work in the future.
• Develop and maintain strong and supportive relationships with authors and internal stakeholders so as to develop a network to feed into strategic work and to ensure future plans align with other teams.
• Contribute to sales and marketing plans, gathering feedback from customers to optimise the sales of products and services.
• Carry out market studies to feed into product development pipelines.
• Review existing portfolio of products with customers and identify and make recommendations on areas to develop.

Skills required:

• At least one year’s experience in publishing, preferably in professional or academic publishing.
• The post-holder must have a strong interest in the law and trends and developments in the legal market.
• Pro-active and organised: the post holder must be able to take responsibility for the development of a portfolio of titles and manage multiple projects at different stages of development, adjusting to changing priorities on an ongoing basis.
• Results-focussed: the post holder will be responsible for delivering against budget targets for their titles.
• People and communications skills: the post holder must be able to deal with leading members of the legal profession in a credible manner and form effective working relationships with authors, the rest of the Content Acquisition team and key stakeholders across other internal departments.
• Commercial awareness and negotiation skills: the post holder must have an appreciation of the financial impact of publishing decisions and seek to get best value for the business in any negotiations.