This Is What I Do: Alistair McEwan, New York Times Media Group

What does your job involve?
I look after international advertising sales for The New York Times and NYTimes.com covering South America, EMEA and the Asia/Pacific regions. This involves working with our six regional sales hubs and a variety of independent media reps, as well as the media group headquarters in New York and Paris.

What's it like working for The New York Times?
Fast-paced. Not a week goes by without us launching a new product in print or, increasingly, in the digital space. NYTimes.com is the biggest newspaper website in the world and so there is a constant stream of innovation.

What qualifications and experience do you need?
Keen commercial instincts, good understanding of the international media market and plenty of cross-cultural empathy. You need to be able to manage the expectations of people who do business in many different ways. I've been fortunate to live and work in Asia, Africa and Europe and my travels have been enormously beneficial to the job I do today.

How do you spend a typical day?
When I'm in London, I typically spend the mornings talking to Asia and the afternoons talking to New York - anything in between is Europe. Much of my time is spent pulling together the various threads of projects such as special magazine issues and new digital products, and coordinating the sales efforts of my colleagues around the world.

What's the best thing about your job?
The variety. A constant flow of new initiatives from The New York Times means I always have something interesting to talk to clients about, wherever they are in the world.

And the worst?
Agencies asking for global, integrated, break-through, "never-been-done-before" media solutions, with a 24-hour turnaround.

What keeps you awake at night?
Do England have the firepower to win The Ashes?

Who helped you get where you are today?
Richard McClean, my first publisher at the International Herald Tribune, who gave me my break into the industry 14 years ago.

 * Got an interesting job ? E-mail harriet.dennys@haymarket.com