SVP, Subscriptions Business

Newsweek is entering a pivotal phase in the evolution of its subscription business. As a historic global brand with renewed momentum, we are scaling subscriptions into a core revenue engine with an initial target to grow annual subscription revenue by 2X in 2025 and significant long-term expansion opportunity across both B2C and B2B.

We are seeking a strategic commercially minded SVP of Subscriptions to operate as the General Manager of the subscription business. This is not a functional marketing or product role and is a full business leadership mandate. The GM will own subscription performance, define strategy, help shape product and pricing, and build the operating foundation required to scale sustainably.

This leader will bring deep subscription expertise, strong financial acumen, and experience navigating the unique dynamics of media and publishing models, including paywalls, content strategy alignment, lifecycle optimization, and retention economics. The ideal candidate is a business builder who operates and thinks like a General Manager, not a functional specialist, and has lived through subscription business challenges with proven knowledge of what works.

This is a high-impact opportunity to architect and scale a critical revenue pillar for Newsweek’s next chapter.

Normal working hours: Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm.

Place of Work: Our office is based in London, but you will have the ability to work from home anywhere in the UK.

Key Responsibilities:

Business Ownership Mindset & Strategy

• Manage subscription business, including revenue growth, cost management, and profitability targets.
• Define and execute a multi-year subscription strategy across B2C, with intended roadmap expansion into B2B.
• Develop pricing, packaging, offer architecture, and monetization frameworks.
• Partner to build financial models, forecasts, and scenario plans to guide investment decisions.
• Lead annual and quarterly subscription planning in partnership with Finance and other Executive Leadership.
• Establish clear KPIs across acquisition, retention, ARPU, LTV, and churn.

Product, Paywall and Subscriber Experience

• Define subscription product strategy and prioritize roadmap initiatives in partnership with Product.
• Manage end-to-end subscriber lifecycle, from acquisition through renewal and reactivation.
• Design and optimize paywall mechanics and the checkout experience (including metering rules, dynamic pricing, and A/B testing), while Editorial retains ownership of content gating decisions.
• Evaluate and manage subscription platforms and vendors (e.g. billing, paywall, CRM.)
• Ensure seamless onboarding, access management, and subscriber experience.

Growth, Retention, & Lifecycle Optimization

• Partner closely with stakeholders and relevant teams on marketing and acquisition execution while owning overall business outcomes.
• Drive commercial retention and churn reduction strategies (such as mitigating credit card failures and executing pricing win-backs), while partnering with Editorial leadership who own engagement-driven retention through content.
• Implement lifecycle marketing frameworks and subscriber success programs.
• Improve renewal rates, reduce involuntary churn, and design win-back programs for lapsed subscribers.
• Leverage experimentation and A/B testing to continuously improve conversion and retention performance.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the company-wide subscription champion and subject matter expert.
• Collaborate across Editorial, Product, Office of the CEO, Finance, Legal, Technology, and other Executive Leadership to align subscription strategy with enterprise priorities.
• Ensure subscription practices comply with legal and regulatory standards.
• Partner with Finance on revenue recognition, billing systems, and forecasting integrity.
• Present subscription performance and strategic initiatives to Executive Leadership.
• Manage direct reports where required.

General

• Perform any other reasonable duties necessary to meet the needs of the business.

Qualifications:

• Significant relevant experience in subscription-driven businesses (media, publishing, SaaS, or DTC).
• Demonstrated success growing subscription revenue with measurable impact.
• Deep understanding of subscription KPIs (conversion, churn, ARPU, LTV, CAC, retention curves).
• Experience with both B2C and B2B subscription models.
• Strong knowledge of media subscription dynamics (paywalls, metered access, content value exchange).
• Financial fluency with forecasting, pricing analysis, and profitability modeling.
• Experience managing direct reports and influencing cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Familiarity with subscription billing and paywall platforms (e.g. Stripe, Recurly, Piano, Zuora).
• Executive-level communication skills and ability to translate data into strategy.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as an enterprise leader building trust, fostering strong cross-functional relationships, and aligning stakeholders toward shared commercial outcomes.
• Experience at leading subscription publishers or scaled digital subscription environments is strongly preferred.
• Experience leading initiatives across geographically distributed teams, with the flexibility and discipline to drive progress across time zones.
• Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree preferred.