Liz Perkins is commercial director for the regions, Scotland and Ireland for News UK and Ireland.
Perkins leads a regional creative studio, as well as three experienced media sales teams based in Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin, who sell to both media agencies and brands across all sectors.
She has recently restructured her management team giving more focus to both its market leading brands (The Times & The Sunday Times and The Sun) and to its day-to-day trading and content solutions.
She shared how a recent week in her life went.
Monday
We have a hybrid working policy so I am able to work from home for a couple of days a week. As I work with teams across the UK, no two weeks look the same, so I’m never able to commit to set days in the office or at home.
Working from home on a Monday means I have time in the morning to prepare for the week ahead. I catch up on emails and finish the preparation for my team away day in Dublin later this week.
Something you won’t know about me is that I am an accredited business coach and I enjoy coaching both internally and externally. In the afternoon, I block out time to coach two colleagues from different editorial teams across the business. General themes that colleagues are currently conscious of are career progression and navigating change, which I’m sure many people can relate to. In coaching we don’t offer advice, instead we support and offer a safe place to think out loud. This enables the person to work through a challenge, and then set manageable goals.
Tuesday
I head into the Manchester office to meet with Emma Thompson and Ollie Scull to work through their short term objectives with the team and our key northern clients. Emma is now head of trading for the regions and she is currently reviewing our trading agreements, and looking at where we can improve and leverage different elements of our deals and delivery.
Meanwhile, Ollie is head of content solutions for the regions, and this week he is working with Wavemaker on some exciting activity with Jet2. In the afternoon, I drive to Wavemaker to pick up Emma Slater, its Regional MD, ahead of The Times & The Sunday Times evening event at the stunning Rudding Park Hotel. We have a great natter all the way about life and work opportunities, and then we enjoy a brilliant evening of political debate and dinner with other clients and colleagues.
We watch an insightful Q&A hosted by Times Radio Presenter, Calum Macdonald, with an incredible panel of journalists from The Times, including Rachel Sylvester, Matthew Parris, and Anna Murphy. They discuss everything from levelling up to innovation, and the current economic climate.
After a fun and educational evening we drive back with more chat, and I’m home before midnight. A long, but great day!
Wednesday
As the weekends are getting booked up with family get-togethers, I’m struggling to find time to catch up with some friends who live further away. I definitely spend more time enabling my kids’ busy social lives than having one for myself! So on Wednesday as a rare treat, I take a midweek day off to catch up with an old school friend. We have a day of shopping, chatting and eating – bliss!
Thursday
It’s an early start, arriving at the airport at 6.30am to catch the 8.30am flight to Dublin. It is still taking ages to get through security at Manchester airport. Once in Dublin, I meet my team for a ‘New Beginnings’ away day held at the Gibson Hotel.
My Dublin-based team has recently gone through a lot of change, including a restructure to brand-focused teams, a new management team as well as a move to a new office. The aim of this session is to set key strategic objectives for the year ahead and to discuss and agree on new ways of working. This team works hard and plays hard, and we don’t want to lose their collaborative culture, or sense of fun. Some great ideas are generated and we finish the day with a few team drinks.
Friday
In the morning I work from the Dublin office. The day starts with 1-2-1 meetings with my management team and then a planning meeting with the Commercial Director of Wireless Ireland regarding some exciting, live cross medium pitches we’re collaborating on. I then have time to go for coffee with the Editor of the Irish Sun and the Editor of The Sunday Times Ireland to update them on the outcomes of our team session the day before.
I head back to the airport around lunchtime, where I catch up with emails while I wait for my flight. I fall asleep straight away on the 30 minute flight back to Manchester, which is no surprise after such a busy week! I am back in time to pick up the kids to start the weekend.
