Pegasus
Website:
pegasusforkids.com
Job details:
Pegasus is looking for an experienced publishing leader to head our publishing and editorial function as we enter the next phase of our growth.
We are not looking only for an editor.
We are looking for someone who can think about what children should read, learn, create and engage with — and translate those insights into commercially successful publishing products.
Pegasus publishes children’s books and learning products across a wide range of categories, including storybooks, activity books, early learning, reference, workbooks, novelty formats, interactive books, puzzles, games and other screen-free products.
The Role
The Head of Publishing will be responsible for the overall publishing programme at Pegasus — from identifying opportunities and developing concepts to building the publishing list, managing editorial execution and ensuring products are relevant, differentiated and commercially viable.
The role will work closely with Editorial, Design, R&D, Production, Sales, Marketing and senior management.
Key Responsibilities
Publishing & Product Strategy
- Build and manage the annual and long-term publishing programme for Pegasus.
- Identify new categories, formats, concepts and publishing opportunities.
- Study international and Indian publishing trends, competition, consumer behaviour and emerging formats.
- Strengthen existing publishing categories while continuously developing new product propositions.
- Ensure the publishing list has the right balance of evergreen products, innovation, intellectual property and commercially scalable series.
Product Development
- Take publishing projects from initial concept through final print-ready product.
- Develop strong product briefs covering concept, age group, format, content, pricing, competitive positioning and differentiation.
- Work closely with editors, authors, illustrators and designers to achieve high editorial and visual standards.
- Review prototypes, manuscripts, layouts and product concepts at key stages of development.
- Ensure every product has a clearly defined consumer, purpose and reason to exist.
- Editorial Leadership
Lead, mentor and develop the editorial and publishing team.
- Establish strong editorial standards, processes and review systems.
- Improve editorial quality, accuracy, creativity and consistency across the publishing programme.
- Manage internal editors as well as external authors, illustrators, freelancers and content partners.
Research & Innovation
- Build a strong culture of research before product development.
- Use market data, competitive products, customer feedback, sales insights and consumer testing to evaluate publishing ideas.
- Work closely with our internal R&D process to validate new concepts before significant investment.
- Encourage experimentation while maintaining commercial discipline.
Commercial Orientation
- Understand product economics including pricing, print quantities, production costs and expected market potential.
- Work closely with Sales and Marketing to understand what is working across distribution, modern trade, e-commerce, international and direct-to-consumer channels.
- Review product and category performance and use this information to guide future publishing decisions.
- Identify opportunities to build successful series and intellectual properties rather than creating isolated titles.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Coordinate closely with Production and Purchase teams to ensure projects meet cost, quality and timeline requirements.
- Work with Marketing teams on product positioning, launch communication and content requirements.
- Support Sales teams with strong product understanding, cataloguing information and selling propositions.
- Ensure product metadata and publishing information are accurate and available to relevant teams.
What We Are Looking For
- Significant experience in publishing, preferably in children’s publishing, educational publishing, activity publishing or learning products.
- Prior experience managing an editorial or publishing team.
- Strong understanding of children’s content, age appropriateness, storytelling, learning and product development.
- Ability to evaluate both editorial quality and commercial potential.
- Strong visual and product sensibility.
- Exposure to international publishing trends and formats would be highly valuable.
- Comfortable working across books, activity products, novelty formats and newer publishing concepts.
- Strong project-management ability with the discipline to manage multiple publishing projects simultaneously.
- A collaborative leader who can work across Editorial, Design, Production, Sales and Marketing.
- Curious, research-oriented and willing to challenge conventional publishing approaches.
What Will Define Success in This Role?
Success will not simply be measured by the number of books published.
It will be measured by:
Building stronger and more differentiated publishing properties.
Developing products that consumers actively seek out.
Improving the commercial success rate of new publishing projects.
Creating scalable series and intellectual properties.
Improving publishing quality and speed.
Building a strong, accountable and creative editorial team.
Helping Pegasus become a trusted partner for children’s reading, learning and screen-free engagement.
About Pegasus
Pegasus is part of the B. Jain Group, a publishing group with a legacy dating back to 1966.
Over the years, Pegasus has grown into one of India’s significant children’s publishing brands, with products distributed across India and international markets.
Today, our ambition goes beyond publishing individual books.
We are building Pegasus around a larger purpose — helping children Read, Learn, Create, Play, Solve and grow through meaningful screen-free experiences.
If you have spent your career creating great publishing products and believe children’s publishing needs to combine creativity, consumer understanding and commercial thinking, we would love to hear from you.
I would make one important change versus a conventional publishing JD: don’t over-emphasise “10–15 years publishing experience” and degrees at the top. You could end up attracting traditional editorial managers who are very good at producing books but weak at deciding what should be published. For where Pegasus is headed, product judgement + consumer understanding + publishing discipline matter more.
Click on Apply to know more.