How Newspapers Can Monetize Data

“In god we trust, all others must bring data.” This quote by W. Edwards Deming sums up the focus information businesses will need in the future. Newspapers collect large volumes of data during long relationships with readers. These relationships are their biggest assets and can become their biggest opportunities. By understanding users in real time, newspapers can customize news consumption experiences and specifically target them to the needs and lifestyles of their readers. Newspapers are in positions to use information successfully by connecting data points for predictive analysis that could drive both user engagement and advertiser results.

Big data results from our use of connected devices—everything from cell phones and utility meters to card swipe machines and smart gadgets. All these devices interact with us and continuously capture and transmit data. The increasing volume and detail of information captured by enterprises, as well as the rise of multimedia, social media, and the Internet of Things is rapidly leading big data to become a key basis of competition and growth for companies.

What constitutes big data?

Krishna Tewari explains big data as the confluence of three trends: Big Transaction Data, Big Interaction Data and Big Data Processing.

 

Big data can be compiled from various disparate data sources of publishers, then analyzed and used to form strategies for marketing, customer retention, pricing offers, upselling and bundling of products and services.

What type of data is collected by publishers?

Newspapers are deeply connected with their audiences. They collect commercial information, in addition to personal preferences and media consumption habits.

Some of the sources and components of data collected by publishers are:

Publishers unknowingly and knowingly collect information but the challenge is in integrating and managing that information. Data clusters cannot provide results without the help of data scientists who use analytic tools and leverage the data to make smart decisions. As publishers aggregate more data from different sources, they need to start organizing this information to derive value for marketing decisions, customer engagement, pricing and product strategies.