Assistant Director, Commissioning, Academy Publishing - Bukit Merah

Reporting Structure: Reports to Director (Commissioning & Editorial)

• Lead the Commissioning Team. Be responsible for overall Team performance, assessing workload across the Team and allocating resources effectively, assessing Team capability and giving appropriate guidance based on Team ability, recruitment and training of new team members and their continued development
• The Commissioning Team’s scope of work:
• Ascertain and understand market needs at industry level and topic level through horizon scanning research, regular review and market engagement
• Carry out strategic competitor analysis
• Gather feedback and assess viability of new and existing products and content
• Identify appropriate topics for subject areas to grow each Series
• Use a wide array of data analysis tools to ensure topic selection is data-driven
• Identify and engage with potential authors, contributors and content providers
• In consultation with the Editorial Team, drive high-quality submissions through careful selection of topic, authors, review of manuscript, and working with authors to ensure the manuscript is of suitable standard
• Manage publishing pipeline against submission targets
• Assist in negotiating and managing Author contracts
• Build and leverage relationships with internal and external editorial stakeholders (eg, authors, SAL BUs, AP sub-divisions)
• Partner with Editorial Team and the Journals Advisory Committee so that the journals’ strategy is congruent with the Committee’s journal development plans
• Support the Commissioning Team with overseeing the management of peer reviewers/referees for the journals
• Work with the Sales & Marketing Team in the marketing and promotion of content offerings by providing content, input and feedback on marketing collateral, product launches and ongoing marketing efforts of products, as needed.
• When applicable, participate in the development of new technology or enhancement of current technology aimed at providing a new medium for or improving the delivery of content
• Responsible for planning and implementing commissioning strategies on Academy Publishing’s (AP’s) existing and new print and digital products and content
• Help grow AP’s content offering by commissioning new content through topic/product ideation, engaging suitable authors/writers, content curation and acquisition, and content licensing. Putting up the necessary business case for such new content and product lines
• Using data and market feedback, analyse a product’s life cycle, including repurposing of content and the extension of a product’s lifespan through upcycling
• Lead AP’s engagement & outreach programme that helps promote AP’s products, and raise awareness of both the work of AP and its authors

• A self-starter with drive, initiative and a big-picture perspective
• Creative mindset and the ability to bring energy and ideas
• Bachelor of Laws Degree
• Familiarity with the legal industry and community
• Professional experience in legal and digital publishing or legal research is preferable
• Direct experience of managing legal publications both in print and digital is desirable
• Aptitude for digesting and distilling large amounts of information
• Strong data analysis and reporting skills – ability to directly query data is desirable
• Excellent communication skills – both written and verbal
• Demonstrated experience in people management
• Collaborative and good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders
• Diplomacy in giving authors (ones who have subject-matter expertise) constructive criticism
• Attention to detail to check authors’ work on a high level
• Ability to clearly brief what is needed from authors
• Having an understanding of SEO and social media is an advantage